BACKGROUND: Past clinical research has provided varied and sometimes diverging descriptions of burnout. OBJECTIVES: As burnout is still prevalent in today's workplaces, actions are required mainly at the primary but also at the secondary and tertiary levels of prevention. METHODS: In this literature review, the concept of burnout is reread through the lens of positive psychology and the most established theoretical models in the field. RESULTS: A common view is seemingly emerging that characterizes burnout as a condition of alienation, loss of motivation and low autonomy resulting from an unbridgeable gap in the personal and/or organizational resources that one has to invest in building a stimulating and rewarding professional career, full of significant relationships that give meaningfulness to one's life project. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing clinical criteria for burnout, as it is the case in some European countries, couldfacilitate the identification of the syndrome and the estimation of its prevalence in Italian work organizations.
BACKGROUND: Past clinical research has provided varied and sometimes diverging descriptions of burnout. OBJECTIVES: As burnout is still prevalent in today's workplaces, actions are required mainly at the primary but also at the secondary and tertiary levels of prevention. METHODS: In this literature review, the concept of burnout is reread through the lens of positive psychology and the most established theoretical models in the field. RESULTS: A common view is seemingly emerging that characterizes burnout as a condition of alienation, loss of motivation and low autonomy resulting from an unbridgeable gap in the personal and/or organizational resources that one has to invest in building a stimulating and rewarding professional career, full of significant relationships that give meaningfulness to one's life project. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing clinical criteria for burnout, as it is the case in some European countries, couldfacilitate the identification of the syndrome and the estimation of its prevalence in Italian work organizations.