In his book "The Burnout Society," Byung-Chul Han presents the paradigm shift that has led humanity from the disciplinary society toward the achievement society. From a repressive society, based on the negativity of prohibitions, toward a hyperactive society, overabundant in stimuli and information, based on total positivity. The verb that defines the achievement society is not "I must" but "I can"; contemporary man believes himself free, but paradoxically lives at war with himself. The achievement society, Han says, engenders the infinite pain of the exhaustion of the self.

In his book "The Burnout Society," Byung-Chul Han presents the paradigm shift that has led humanity from the disciplinary society toward the achievement society. From a repressive society, based on the negativity of prohibitions, toward a hyperactive society, overabundant in stimuli and information, based on total positivity. The verb that defines the achievement society is not "I must" but "I can"; contemporary man believes himself free, but paradoxically lives at war with himself. The achievement society, Han says, engenders the infinite pain of the exhaustion of the self.