Reclaiming the Fire

April 16, 2001
Berglas, a management consultant and psychology instructor at UCLA and Harvard, traces burnout among attorneys, doctors, executives and others. For example, he points to Michael Jordan, who left basketball in 1993 because of "Supernova Burnout"; after extraordinary achievements, excessive attention made him fear failure, Berglas theorizes. Other cases of people trapped by success demonstrate burnout variations. Readers without their own professional guidance will wish Berglas discussed more solutions. Agent, Jill Kneerim.

April 1, 2001
If a person works hard and accumulates enormous wealth, should one assume that he or she is happy and successful? Berglas, a clinical psychologist and former columnist for Inc. magazine, says "no" in this examination of success-triggered problems what he calls "Supernova Burnout." U.S. society's glorification of material wealth, he argues, is to blame for the burnout that afflicts highly motivated professionals who no longer find their careers rewarding: "Achieving what you want and realizing that no favorable psychological changes have automatically ensued is far worse than failing to reach a goal." Using clinical case studies of attorneys, corporate executives, athletes, and business managers as well as laboratory research findings, Berglas vividly illustrates the symptoms and offers helpful tips for prevention and treatment. This well-written, well-supported work covers a fascinating topic and will sustain the interest of the reader. Recommended for psychology and business collections in academic and large public libraries. Elizabeth Goeters, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Roswell

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2001
Berglas is a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at the Harvard Medical School, and now he teaches at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. He has already examined some of the unforeseen consequences of success in "The "Success Syndrome: Hitting Bottom When You Reach the Top (1986). Berglas discovered that for many people, achieving success is a double-edged sword. The pressure of rising expectations and an increased social isolation, which leads to depression, often accompanies success. He now further explores the complexities of the paradox of success. He identifies "supernova burnout" as the condition where individuals become so good at what they do and have been doing over an extended period of time that they find their work no longer psychologically rewarding and their self-esteem threatened. Berglas diagnoses other conditions, such as the "Goldilocks dilemma," "encore anxiety," and "Pyrrhic revenge," and he suggests ways to handle these problems. He also looks at differences in the way men and women handle success and its problems. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)