📚 Coping with a life of political struggle. In her book Burnout, Hannah Proctor explores how activists cope with defeat, frustration, and burnout — and how these emotions are key to the experience of engaging in politics. Over the course of eight sections — organized around the concepts of melancholia, nostalgia, depression, burnout, exhaustion, bitterness, trauma, and mourning — Proctor offers tools for understanding and dealing with political disappointment.

Proctor argues that political losses or failures cause a collective melancholia that can lead activists to stay stuck in the past. She offers the Paris Commune as one example — a failed revolution that activists still look back on with nostalgia and with a sense of what could have been. Still, Proctor notes, these moments have a power of their own, serving to inspire future revolutionaries to chart their own courses.

She goes on to discuss what it means to be burnt out. Proctor argues that it doesn’t come from overwork, but rather from being emotionally invested in the work. Deep care is what keeps a movement alive — despite how exhausting it can get. In political scenes, patience is difficult because everything feels urgent. This can be where internal conflicts, burnout, and self criticism begin.

Proctor has thoughts on how activists can cope. Her approach is to view losses as something that can drive collective action. Rather than “getting over it,” she argues that activists should acknowledge the loss while continuing to push for change.

TL;DR: It’s a thought-provoking read that’s packed with history, psychology, and a whole lot of activism. Those who don’t care much for politics may find it a difficult read — especially considering some historical knowledge is assumed.

You can find it on Amazon.

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