Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat – Talk by Hannah Proctor

Language accessibility: English

Free entrance

The talk is a part of the event Uprooting Ill Health I. The event is organized by the Biennale Matter of Art in collaboration with the Institute of Anxiety.

Hannah Proctor, author of the book Burnout, will give a lecture exploring the history of how political activists have reacted to defeat, frustration, and disappointment.

Hannah Proctor will present her newly published book Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat (Verso, 2024). With the planet doomed and many efforts and aspirations falling apart, how can we keep going? To answer that question, Hannah Proctor goes to the histories of failed uprisings and political struggles in order to learn how one can mourn and organize at the same time, without compromise. Questioning neoliberal forms of self-help and individualizing therapies, she goes through the political history of burnout and guides us through various practices of radical recuperation – sanatoriums and group therapy, among others. Her book presents many insights into how to endure our struggles despite lacking the will to do so.

Hannah Proctor is a historian at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She is the author of two books: Psychologies in Revolution: Alexander Luria's 'Romantic Science' and Soviet Social History (PalgraveMacmillan, 2020) and Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat (Verso, 2024).