ERT for burnout in the 'achievement age'

The promise is freedom, opportunity, and endless possibilities – yet so many of us feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to stop. Philosopher Byung-Chul Han defines this as the cost of our modern ‘achievement society.’

If we take a look at the origins of psychoanalysis with Freud’s classic theories of repression and the superego and then explore how Embodied Relational Therapy (ERT) can help with burnout, we can begin to consider exhaustion and overwhelm as a social phenomenon rather than an individual failing.

Freud’s superego and repression

Freud described the superego as an internalised voice of authority – it usually comes from parents, but it is the part of us that tells us what the rules are. “You must not,” is the mantra, and the shame associated with transgression can feel terrible.

For much of the 20th century, this framework fitted: people came to therapy weighed down by prohibitions, guilt, and inner conflict between instinct and repression. This is what classically informed training teaches therapists, but Vienna of the early 20th Century is not the UK in 2025.

Whilst we are not free of repression, it is fair to say that Freud’s disciplinary society – ruled by external authority and internal repression – does not account for many of our challenges. Byung Chul Han is an important modern thinker who can help us navigate new realities.

Han’s critique: From “you must not” to “you can”

Han argues that repression is not the defining feature of our time. We live in something he calls the achievement society. For us, the dominant message is “You must not”, but “You can.”

Of course, at first glance, this sounds liberating, but there is a shadow, which is coming into therapy – “you can” is often followed by “and you must.” Many clients (and therapists) feel a pervasive, relentless pressure to:

• optimise ourselves
• work harder and faster
• always be available, productive, and improving

Han suggests today’s suffering arises from the constant need to achieve. The result is not repression but exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout. People feel unwell not just because of an internalised repression of desires, but because we are pushing ourselves constantly to perform beyond the limits of our capacities.

Why embodiment matters

If Freud’s patients struggled with guilt and repression, many busy clients today come to therapy with fatigue and a loss of connection to their bodies and emotions – constantly thinking, but not grounded in thoughts, instead seeking something external to validate their constant striving.

This is where Embodied Relational Therapy can be particularly powerful. Burnout is not just an idea in the mind; it is a lived reality in the body.

Common complaints that clients have are:

• muscle tension, shallow breathing, or headaches
• a sense of being on the edge of exhaustion
• difficulty resting or allowing oneself to stop

An embodied relational therapist might encourage clients to:

• slow down and notice how the pressure to achieve lives in the body
• feel supported rather than driven, accompanied rather than judged
• value rest, presence, and connection as valuable in themselves

Final thoughts

By looking at Freud and Han, we can start to think about how the challenges we confront have shifted from the need to work with the battle between instincts, repression and the superego, to ending the embodied battle between endless achievement and self-optimisation and our tired bodies, minds and emotions.

Embodied Relational Therapy can help us with this shift. With careful attention to our bodily, emotional and cognitive experience, it can help us with alternatives to the cycle of self-improvement by offering us the capacity to rest and allow ourselves to be less optimal and more human.

Han shows us that burnout is not a weakness, but the result of a cultural demand to be constantly active and achieving.

Embodied Relational Therapy offers a compassionate way forward – helping us reconnect with our bodies, our relationships, and our limits to assist us in finding a more balanced way of life.

References

Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society (2010)

Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id (1923)

Totton, Nick. Embodied Relating: A Guide to Therapeutic Practice (2014)