AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between attachment styles and various burnout risk groups (“relaxed”, “wornout”, “challenged” and “burnout”) and whether attachment styles suitably discriminate between individual burnout risk groups.MethodThe study involved 2,320 participants (1,668 women and 652 men), who completed an adrenal burnout syndrome questionnaire, a performance-based self esteem scale, a work addiction risk test and a relationship questionnaire.ResultsA one-way analysis of variance confirmed attachment style differences between burnout risk groups. The challenged and burnout groups differed from the relaxed and wornout groups by having a significantly lower secure attachment style score and a higher insecure (avoidant and preoccupied) attachment style score. The canonical discriminant analysis showed that the predictors (secure, preoccupied and avoidant attachment styles) can be used to appropriately classify 85.4% of respondents in the predicted burnout risk groups.ConclusionThe study confirmed the hypothesis that two insecure attachment styles (i.e. avoidant and preoccupied) predominate in the challenged and burnout groups, and that a secure attachment style predominates in the relaxed and wornout groups. Burnout syndrome can thus be conceived as the result of excessive and compulsive efforts to retain a relationship that is perceived as insecure or to reduce (excessive) fear of losing this relationship.

Vsako družbeno obdobje povzroča psihosomatska obolenja, ki so posledica sinergije med družbenimi razmerami in posameznikovimi lastnostmi. Zdi se, da je izgorevanje in izgorelost bolezen, ki tako v svojih vzrokih kot tudi v svojih simptomih odslikava duh časa, v katerem živimo. Najbolj želene, podpirane in družbeno sprejete osebnostne lastnosti so lahko hkrati tudi posameznikov »program za samouničenje«. Obdobje »tekoče moderne«, kot današnje obdobje imenuje Zygmunt Bauman (2002), nas vse bolj prepušča nam samim. Družbene norme in vrednote seveda niso izginile, vendar se vse bolj spreminjajo, saj si moramo sami razviti svoj vrednostni sistem oziroma zgraditi hierarhijo lastnih vrednot. To se dogaja tudi na področju dela, področju, ki nam je dolga leta nudilo občutek varnosti in pomagalo ustvarjati jasno identiteto. Za današnje obdobje so značilni nestanovitna zaposlitev, individualizacija, spremembe vrednot, nezmožnost posameznikovega vplivanja in nadzora nad širšimi družbenimi spremembami, kar se pri posameznikih odraža v nasilju lastne prisile. Najvidnejša oblika nasilja so manipulacije, s katerimi lahko obvladujemo druge tako, da jih ustrahujemo.