"Unconscious determinants of career choice and burnout: theoretical

model and counseling strategy. "

Journal of Employment Counseling. 38.4 (Dec 2001): 170(15).
Malach-Pines, Ayala, and Oreniya Yafe-Yanai.
Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2001 American Counseling Association
A psychodynamic-existential perspective is proposed as a theoretical model that explains career
burnout and serves as a basis for a counseling strategy. According to existential theory, the root
of career burnout lies in people's need to find existential significance in their life and their sense
that their work does not provide it. The reason that people choose a particular career is explained
by psychoanalytic theory, which attributes it to significant childhood experiences, family
dynamics, and familial vocational choices. Two detailed and 4 brief cases are presented to
demonstrate the application of the psychoanalytic-existential approach to career counseling that
is sought as a result of burnout.
At the start of the new millennium, humans stand in a vortex of changes that forces a look at the
world with new eyes. An important component in "seeing with new eyes" is the knowledge of
one's "personal history" (James, 1996). In this article, we suggest a way for career counselors to
help people learn their vocational--familial and personal--history and thus see their career with
new eyes. This new way of seeing has a direct implication for treating career burnout--the result
of a process in which highly motivated and committed individuals lose their spirit
(Freudenberger, 1980, p. 13; Maslach, 1982, p. 3; Pines & Aronson, 1988, p. 9).
Different conceptual formulations have been offered to explain career burnout, including
psychoanalytic theory (Fischer, 1983; Freudenberger, 1980), social comparison theory (Buunk,
Schaufeli, & Ybema, 1994), social exchange theory (VanYperen, Buunk, & Schaufeli, 1992),
equity theory (van Dierendonck, Schaufeli, & Sixma, 1994), the social competence model
(Harrison, 1983), and the job demands-controls model (Landsbergis, 1988). We propose a
different--psychodynamic existential--perspective as particularly suitable to explain the etiology
of career burnout and to serve as the theoretical foundation for a counseling strategy aimed at
helping people overcome career burnout.
The psychoanalytic-existential approach assumes that the root of career burnout lies in the need
of human beings to believe that their lives are meaningful, that the things they do--and
consequently they themselves--are important and significant (Pines, 1993, 2000a). Frankl (1976)
wrote that "the striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man" (p.
154). Becker (1973) believed that people's need to believe that the things they do are meaningful
is their way of dealing with the angst caused by facing their mortality. To be able to deny death,
they need to feel important, even heroic. They need to believe that their life is meaningful, that
they matter in the larger, cosmic scheme of things. In eras previous to the end of the twentieth
century, religion was the most commonly chosen "hero system," or way to feel significant.
Validating the meaning of one's life through a professional calling was the privilege of the few.
For many people today, however, work is one of the frequently chosen paths for finding
existential significance.

The assumption that people can "burn out" when they feel that their work is no longer significant
was supported in studies that included nurses (Pines, 2000a, 2000b), teachers (Pines, in press),
and managers (Etzion & Pines 1986). If the premise is accepted that many people today are
trying to derive a sense of existential significance from their work, the next question to address is
why they choose to do it through a particular career. Why does one person achieve a sense of
meaning by being a teacher, another by being a nurse, and a third by being a manager?
The choice of a career is a complex and multifaceted process that includes all the spheres of a
person's life (Hall, 1996). Since the turn of the twentieth century, many researchers have
attempted to classify the factors that influence this process. They have identified such factors as
aptitudes, interests, resources, limitations, requirements, and opportunities (e.g., Parsons,
1909/1989; Ginzberg, 1951; Super, 1953, 1957; Swanson, 1996). It is common today to view
vocational choice as an ongoing process that continues throughout the person's life. This modern
perspective of "life career development" is broad and holistic (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnson,
1998). It "encompasses all spheres of activity and all corresponding facets of personal identity"
(Hall, 1996, p. 7).
Psychoanalytic theory makes a significant contribution to the theories of life career development
by adding the dimension of unconscious career choices. As noted by Pruyser (1980), the
psychoanalytic vintage point is psychological determinism. It assumes that "the work that any
person undertakes in almost any environment, excepting only the extremes of slavery and
imprisonment, is to some extent determined by personal choice, made at several levels of
consciousness" (p. 61).
According to psychoanalytic theory, people shape their world both consciously and
unconsciously. Childhood experiences (both positive and negative) and familial heritage have a
major influence on vocational choices. People choose an occupation that enables them to
replicate significant childhood experiences, satisfy needs that were unfulfilled in their childhood,
and actualize dreams passed on to them by their familial heritage (Pines & Yanai, 2000; Yanai &
Pines, 2000).
The idea that there are unconscious influences on career choices has been noted by numerous
scholars (e.g., Bordin, 1979, 1980; Bratcher, 1982; Kets de Vries, 1995, 1996; Kets de Vries &
Associates, 1991; McKelvie & Friedland, 1978; Obholzer & Roberts, 1997; Osipow &
Fitzgerald,1996; Roe, 1956). In his article, "A Psychodynamic View of Counseling Psychology,"
Bordin (1980) discussed ways in which psychodynamic, including psychoanalytic, ideas can be
applied to the task of the counseling psychologist. He believed in a broad developmental
counseling orientation that includes all stages of the life cycle (Bordin, 1980). Kets de Vries
(Kets de Vries, 1995; Kets de Vries & Associates, 1991), in his psychoanalytic analysis of
famous business leaders, suggested that a frequent occurrence among such successful managers
is the absence of a father. The absence can be real (the father is dead or living far away) or, more
frequently, it can be psychological (a father who is absent psychologically because of
overinvolvement with his work). The desire to be a manager expresses a desire to become one's
own father. It means raising yourself again "the right way," with total control of your life. This is
why the experience of control is so dominant in the "internal theatre" (the inner psyche) of so
many managers. Bratcher (1982) discussed the influences of the family of origin on career

selection from a family systems perspective. Individuals may continue to be influenced by

familial forces that are outside their awareness or with which they have not been able to deal
satisfactorily in the past, and these forces are also operating when they make their career
decision. From a family framework perspective, McKelvie and Friedland (1978) described
familial influences on career choices, linking people's behavior and feelings about themselves to
the existential need to find and assure a place of belonging. They have shown how individuals'
career interests have been influenced by the values, roles, and family constellation patterns in
their family of origin. In his classic work, Erikson (1950) also shows the striking connection
between the way a child has been reared and his or her career choices as an adult.
All these authors assume that the unconscious determinants of vocational choice reflect the
individual's personal and familial history. The tendency to choose a particular occupation, the
internal permission to choose according to this preference and to function successfully as a
professional all depend on the relationships with key people, especially the parents, during
childhood and also on the career choices of these key people.
Psychoanalytic theory was also used to explain career burnout (Fischer, 1983; Freudenberger,
1980). Freudenberger believed that the most overly committed and excessively dedicated
professionals who use their job as a substitute for social life and are convinced that they are
indispensable are most likely to burn out. The reason is that these people attribute an inordinate
sense of importance to their work, which they then take to be a demonstration of their own
importance. When they are subject to extraordinarily demanding situations, they burn out.
Fischer (1983) added to this conceptualization the idea that those who experience career burnout
tend to have "the illusion of grandiosity" (p. 43). In the course of normal development, according
to Fischer, the direct manifestations of this megalomania become subdued and covert, ultimately
reappearing in the formation of one's ideals. The confirmation of this illusion of grandiosity
sustains one's basic sense of self-esteem, but the disconfirmation of the illusion by a failure
causes burnout. However, Fischer did not have psychoanalytic data available to address the
question of how this state develops within an individual.
We suggest an integration of psychoanalytic and existential ideas as the best way to understand
the etiology of career burnout. According to the existential approach, the choice of a career
involves extremely significant issues, and people approach the process with very high hopes and
expectations, high ego involvement, and passion. According to the psychoanalytic approach, the
greatest passion and the highest ego involvement are typically exhibited by individuals with
some unresolved childhood issue, most often an issue regarding the relationship with a parent.
Success and personal fulfillment give highly motivated individuals a sense of existential
significance and partially heal their childhood wounds. When they feel that they have failed,
when the work does not give their life a sense of meaning, they burn out (see, e.g., Pines, 2000a,
2000b; Pines, in press).
There are both theoretical significance and concrete implications involved in making the
connection between (a) the unconscious reasons for the choice of a career and the particular
significance expected to be derived from that career and (b) the failure to derive existential
significance from the work and resulting career burnout. The implications of these connections

can be translated to a counseling approach aimed at preventing and treating career burnout. In the
following sections, case studies are used to demonstrate how the psychoanalytic-existential
perspective can be applied to an understanding and treatment of career burnout.
METHOD
This article is based on clinical evidence collected during career counseling (including
psychological testing) with people who came to the Adam Institute for Applied Psychology in
Israel for help in dealing with career burnout. Because of the complexity of presenting clinical
material, only two cases are described in detail, and four additional cases are only briefly
described.
Each case was analyzed independently by two experienced clinical psychologists. General
agreement between the two judges was very high. In each case, the presenting problem (career
burnout) was analyzed in the context of the person's search for meaning (career goals,
expectations, dreams) as well as the person's family dynamic (e.g., place and role in the family of
origin, mother's and father's occupation and fulfillment, the parents' relationships to each other
and to their child, parents' expectations of the child).
DETAILED CASE STUDIES
The Case of Ralph
Background. Ralph (age, 55 years) is the older of two brothers. His younger brother (age, 50
years) works as a technical manager. Ralph is the more talented and more successful of the two
brothers, both in terms of his education and his income. He has a degree in physics and works as
a quality control manager in a large industrial company. Ralph reached this high rank after 20
years of work in different roles, all in the area of quality control. He is also an active member of
a political party and a highly respected member of the community, one whose advice is
frequently sought.
Presenting problem. Ralph came for career counseling because he felt burned out in his job. He
did not feel like going to work and experienced chronic headaches and a lack of interest and
enthusiasm in his life.
Family background. Ralph's father owned and managed a large farm in a small, agricultural
town. He was a creative person with "hands of gold" who specialized in cross-breeding flowers.
He was also a man of action, very critical, punctual, and pedantic, who always made sure things
were done right (quality control). His professional success was limited, however, because he had
difficulty delegating responsibilities and managing people, but he was happy with what he did.
Ralph's father had died a few years before Ralph came for career counseling.
Ralph's mother, who came from a higher social class than his father, was a well-educated woman
who chose be a homemaker. Mother was "the manager" of the extended family, as well as the
"quality controller," "economist," and "politician." Ralph's parents had a good marriage, and both
felt actualized in their lives. They valued hard work, punctuality, education, leadership,

constructive criticism, and awards. Ralph was his "mother's son." His brother was his "father's
son."
The problem. Ralph was successful at his job but believed that he did not get adequate
recognition and appreciation from his superiors, despite his endless investment of time and
energy and despite his great achievements (that received high praise, recognition, and awards).
When measured in terms of managing people, providing leadership, sorting out priorities,
building a respectable position in the community and receiving awards (mother's legacy), Ralph's
success was obvious and evident--even to him. Nevertheless, the distance and lack of
acknowledgement and recognition from his superiors (reenacting his painful childhood
relationship with his father) led Ralph to believe that his accomplishments at work were
unappreciated and insignificant. This belief was the major contributor to his career burnout.
Ralph also felt that at this stage of his career and life cycle (age 54), something important was
missing in his life. Work no longer provided the satisfaction and fulfillment it once had. He was
burned out. He needed a change.
Analysis. Both the testing and the interview material suggested that Ralph's career choice was
correct and was experienced as appropriate and satisfying. His job as a quality control manager
enabled him to identify with a central trait in the personality of both his parents, a trait that was
highly valued by the whole family. Ralph felt great satisfaction and pride in his work and in his
supplementary political involvement. Both the managerial and the political work won him many
awards (that were highly valued in his family). He was also satisfied with the context of his
work. He did not see himself as an entrepreneur and liked being an employee and a high-ranking
vice president in his company. Ralph took pride in his accomplishments as a manager and
derived great satisfaction from his family life and community involvement. All of these aspects
of his life represented his mother's qualities, and because he was "her son," they presented no
problem of internal adjustment. It was the problematic internalization of his father's
characteristics, which was at the root of his feelings of lack of appreciation from his supervisors,
that was primarily responsible for Ralph's career burnout.
The proposed solution. An analysis of Ralph's occupational family tree indicated that a very
central aspect in that tree was not expressed in Ralph's life, namely the creative, down-to-earth,
and concrete nature of his father's work. His father's cross-breeding agriculture involved both
manual labor and connection to the earth as well as exploration and creativity. When the lack of
these aspects in his life came up in counseling, Ralph's face lit up, and he said, "How I wish ..."
Ralph longed for his father and the things his father represented. Because of the problematic
nature of his relationship with his father, especially the father's criticism and lack of appreciation,
Ralph had difficulty connecting to the aspects within him that represented the father. His father's
death initiated a painful process of change and searching that manifested itself in career burnout.
During counseling, Ralph became aware of the unconscious determinants in his choice of a
managerial career in quality control in the context of a large organization (with "father figures"
who could give or deny acknowledgement and recognition). He recognized the creative,
agricultural aspects missing from his life and acknowledged the longing for his father, together

with his father's rejection of him, and his self-imposed prohibition and fear of approaching these
areas until this point in his counseling.
This new awareness initiated a fast process of change. Ralph acknowledged that he enjoyed his
work and felt a sense of success and significance in it, but he also recognized a need to work the
land with his hands and express himself creatively through gardening (and thus make a
connection to his father).
The idea of a move to a house in the country came up and Ralph responded with great
enthusiasm, sure that having a garden, in addition to taking pride in his work, would solve his
burnout problem. He decided to take a course in cross-breeding flowers and move to a house
with a garden where, like his father, he could experiment with such cross-breeding. This solution
enabled Ralph to express his creative, agricultural side and thus reconnect to his father. This
reconnection also made it possible for him to see the connection between his difficulties with his
superiors and the frustrating and difficult relationship he had had with his father. This awareness
enabled Ralph to take responsibility for his part in the problematic relationship he had with his
superiors and to change that relationship and consequently derive a renewed sense of success and
significance--the antithesis of burnout--from his work.
Summary. There is a connection between the following elements in Ralph's case:
1. Ralph's experience of burnout and his failure to derive existential significance from his work:
Ralph expected that his hard work would bring him recognition from his superiors, which would
have provided him with a sense of success and significance. Failure to receive this recognition
was a primary cause of his burnout.
2. The structure and the content of activities and interests of Ralph's significant identification
figures (his parents) and his career choice: Because his parents had a good marriage, Ralph was
able to combine managing people and providing leadership (his mother's primary legacy) with
quality control (his father's primary legacy).
3. The relationship between Ralph and his identification figures (his parents) and his career
choice and career experience: Ralph chose (unconsciously) a career in management and quality
control, which enabled him to reenact positive childhood experiences with his mother and
negative experiences with his father. The pattern of an absent father and a supportive mother is
often found among managers.
The Case of Orly
Background. Orly (age, 37 years) is the second of three children. Her older sister is a biologist
and her younger brother a manager and an electrical engineer who dreams about becoming an
entrepreneur. Orly studied civil engineering and systems development. She says that she chose
these occupations not because she loved them, but because she is "good with numbers." She
attributes her managerial career to her ability to manage people and to the high respect she
received from her superiors. Her work involved managing a department in a highly successful
high-tech company. Orly was comfortable in her role as a manager, but the context of working

for someone else and being an employee did not suit her. She left her work--because of "a
serious dispute" with her superiors--feeling "hurt, disillusioned, dissatisfied, and burned out."
Presenting problem. Orly came for counseling after a divorce and after leaving her job. She had a
strong sense that her dispute with her superiors was to a large extent initiated by her as a way of
escaping a job and a rank that were very prestigious but lacked true meaning and significance for
her.
Family background. Orly's father was a hard working teacher who was not successful financially
despite his work and effort. (He had a brother with mental retardation and, all his life, prevented
himself from succeeding out of a sense of guilt). He tried to start a school that would prepare
students for the SAT exam, but failed. Orly saw her father as authoritative, dogmatic,
manipulative, and superficial, but also as a sociable and charming person, full of drama, who was
always trying to draw attention to himself.
Orly's mother was a homemaker who started working, for the first time in her life, as a
salesperson in a clothing store a week before Orly came for counseling. The mother was very
excited about her work, enjoyed it tremendously, and seemed to flourish and succeed in it. Until
she started working, Orly's mother was very unhappy and embittered and felt unfulfilled in her
life despite being acknowledged in the family as a very creative cook and as having an excellent
aesthetic sense.
Her parents' marriage was not good. Orly saw herself as similar to her mother in her aesthetic
sense, but as different from her in doing what she wanted (such as getting a divorce and having a
profession). She was "father's daughter" and dreamt about being an entrepreneur.
The problem. Orly came for counseling after two dramatic events. The first one was her divorce.
Her mother always wanted to get a divorce but never dared to do so. Because of her mother's
experience, Orly felt almost compelled to divorce her husband, even though in retrospect she was
not sure she had done the right thing. The second event was her mother starting to work, at age
54 years, for the first time in her life, and the great enjoyment her mother derived from her work.
Orly experienced both these events as breakthroughs and as permission for making changes,
choices, and commitments. In the past, her parents' dissatisfaction with their work was replicated
very powerfully in Orly. In addition, her position as the middle child left her with strong feelings
of discrimination, feelings that she transferred to her work. Oily was in a power struggle with her
father, who adored her and probably also envied her and blocked her. She replicated the pattern
of her conflictual relationship with him in her relationship with her supervisors as well as in the
context of her work where she was a hired employee.
Analysis. Testing indicated that Orly was not as good with numbers as she thought and that her
talents and abilities involved interpersonal relationships in entrepreneurial work and in making
connections between people. After receiving this feedback, Orly understood that her work was a
frustrating replication of a negative situation that she perceived as inevitable. She saw her
siblings as unhappy in their work but committed to success. She saw herself--the middle child-as the one carrying the flag of change while maintaining the connection between mother and
father (between the need to succeed and the need to actualize). Before she was ready to examine

her career, Orly needed to see her mother take responsibility for her own self-actualization by
going out to work. She needed to take the step of divorcing her husband and to witness her
mother enjoying her work in sales (which, as it turns out, Orly loved without acknowledging it).
She needed the serious dispute with her superiors that led to her dismissal and made her feel a
sense of failure. Through these things, Orly began the self-examination that led her to
counseling.
Clinical experience provides evidence that women who were their "father's daughter" often go
into management. When the relationship with the father involves both admiration and envy, there
is an ambivalence in the father's support that compels the daughter to seek her mother's support
and closeness. In order to provide such support, the mother has to be strong and self-actualized.
Orly needed to reexamine her role in her family of origin, her relationship with each of her
parents and with her siblings, in order to provide a solid foundation for a new career choice.
Through her counseling, she was able to break away from her perceived role as the one
discriminated against, a role that turned out to be, in reality, only in her imagination. Now she
was able to withstand her father's envy and her mother's weakness while supporting both of them
in their growth. As she did this, she also took responsibility for herself, her development, and her
inner needs. This made it possible for her to leave her former safe and respectable managerial job
and explore the possibility of a new, independent, and more exciting and meaningful career.
The proposed solution. Orly gave up her managerial job in the high-tech company in order to
build her own public relations agency. Through this process, she achieved a closer relationship
with her mother (the previously unfulfilled and dissatisfied mother who preferred her sister) and
broke away from her compartmentalized role as solely her father's daughter. Making a
connection (internal) to her father enabled Orly to make a connection to her own entrepreneurial
aspirations, while connecting (internally) to her mother and the mother's newly proven success in
sales enabled Orly to acknowledge her own business abilities, something her father was never
able to do.
Orly was aware that starting a career that involves so many connections to family-of-origin
issues demanded self-examination and personal development. Such a process requires personal
and emotional development to achieve the self-definition of "an owner" instead of "an
employee." Orly was willing to make the effort required because she now realized how important
power, independence, and being an entrepreneur were to her. Orly also realized that it was
equally important to her to actualize herself as a woman and a wife. She sensed that, for her,
work and family were closely related and that to combine them successfully she needed a close
relationship with her mother.
Opening a public relations office seemed a very appropriate solution given Orly's occupational
family tree. Like both her parents, Orly was good in making connections with people. Like her
mother, she was good in sales. Like her father, she had an entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, Orly
decided to develop creative hobbies in pottery (similar to her mother's skill in cooking) and in
acting (similar to her father's dramas). A generous divorce settlement enabled her to do all this.
With her self-actualization in all these spheres came a growing sense of success and
significance--the antithesis of burnout.

Summary. In Orly's case, there was a connection between the following elements:
1. Orly's experience of burnout and her sense of failure in her attempt to derive existential
significance through her work: Orly became a manager principally because of the encouragement
and respect she received from her superiors, which gave her a sense of significance. She burned
out and lost her job because of conflicts with those very superiors.
2. The structure and the content of activities and interests of the identification figures in Orly's
family of origin (her parents) and her career choice: In her dissatisfaction with and burnout
regarding her work as a manager, Orly replicated her parents' dissatisfaction with their work. Her
ease both in managing and connecting with people was related to both her parents' ability with
people. Opening a public relations office combined her father's entrepreneurial aspirations with
her mother's business abilities.
3. The relationship between Orly's identification figures, her career choice, and her burnout: The
trigger for Orly's burnout was her serious conflict with her superiors. Both the respect she
initially received from those supervisors and the conflict she had with them replicated Orly's
childhood relationship with her father.
FOUR BRIEF CASE STUDIES
The Case of Adam
Presenting problem. Adam (age, 30 years) came for counseling because he felt burned out in his
work as a house painter. He wanted a job that would enable him to express himself, work with
his hands, be more creative, and help people.
Family background. Adam's father owned a store for electronic equipment. He was unhappy in
his work and every once in a while would close one store and open another. Adam's father was a
closed, distant, and rejecting person. Adam's mother did not have a defined profession. She
worked as a music teacher, an aerobics teacher, and a secretary. She was dominant, active, and
warm and loved to help people. The parents' marriage was not good, and neither felt selfactualized.
Analysis. The work as a house painter enabled Adam to work with his hands and move from one
job to another (like his parents). Now he felt burned out and wanted a work that offered a greater
intellectual challenge and an opportunity for self-expression.
The proposed solution. After taking a course in electronics, Adam could open a lab for repairing
electronic equipment, which would enable him to be an entrepreneur (like his father and in his
father's area), work with his hands, and be intellectually challenged. In addition, it was proposed
that Adam could work as a volunteer in a crisis center helping people in trouble. Adam thought
that these changes were a step toward self-actualization and a meaningful life.
The Case of Joan

Presenting problem. Joan (age, 30 years) came for counseling because she felt burned out. Joan
worked in a company selling computer programs for graphics and publicity offices. She believed
that the work did not allow her creative and aesthetic expression. Nevertheless, she did not want
to commit herself to a career because she wanted to get married and have a family and did not
see a possibility for combining a career with a family.
Family background. Joan's father was an importer of fashion accessories and a tour guide. He
was successful at his work, traveling abroad frequently. Her mother worked as a volunteer,
managing the finances of a social club. She did not want to work because she thought work
would jeopardize her family duties. The parents' marriage was good. Joan describes herself as
more similar to her father.
Analysis. Her mother did not give Joan "permission" to actualize herself both in work and in
motherhood and did not take responsibility for actualizing herself in the work sphere. Her father,
on the other hand, was self-actualized. He combined work with people and fashion with being an
entrepreneur, and he moved frequently between jobs.
The proposed solution. Importing lighting equipment for movie and theater people enabled Joan
to be an entrepreneur and manage a business that combined a connection with the arts, with
people, and with companies abroad (like her father) with managing people and finances (like
both her father and her mother). The challenge she was now ready to face was combining a
career, a marriage, and motherhood (a challenge her mother did not take on). Joan believed that
this challenge was a real breakthrough and an opportunity for self-expression and for finding
existential significance in her life.
The Case of Jack
Presenting problem. Jack (age, 32 years), a lawyer, came for counseling to help him deal with
burnout, frustration, and a lack of significance and success in his work.
Family background. Jack's father is a senior manager in a bank and a "warm, sensitive and wise"
man who expresses his creativity in carpentry. His mother is a researcher in a detective agency
and is "practical" and "inquisitive" with wide interests. Both parents feel actualized in their work,
but their marriage relationship has been difficult.
Analysis. In terms of skills and abilities, Jack is brilliant. It seems that he received from his
father the managerial, numerical, bank-related skills as well as the capability of creative
expression through a hobby. From his mother, he received the inquisitive, interrogative aspect of
his personality. From both of them (both parents work as employees), he received his lack of
interest in being an independent entrepreneur. His failure as a lawyer (as well as a failed love
relationship) caused him to question the extent to which he allowed himself true self-expression.
Jack was ready for a change in his life that would give him a sense of accomplishment,
significance, and success.
The proposed solution. Jack's problem could be addressed if he worked as a lawyer for a large
governmental agency such as the Internal Revenue Service, which combines banking (his father's

part) with investigation and inspection (his mother's part), and learn painting as a hobby. Jack's
excitement about these changes totally eliminated his feelings of burnout.
The Case of Ruth
Presenting problem. Ruth (age, 49 years) worked for more than 20 years as a senior secretary in
the Foreign Affairs Office organizing social events. She came for counseling because she felt
burned out. She felt a need for change and for more significant work.
Family background. Ruth's father was a housepainter and a hardworking and cultured man who
read extensively and had an interest in the arts and in aesthetics. Her mother, a homemaker and a
wonderful hostess, was a simple woman who never learned a profession but valued education.
The parents had a good marriage and both felt satisfied with their life. They valued hard word
and dedication, but education and culture were valued above everything else. Ruth saw herself as
her father's daughter and had difficulty connecting to her mother.
Analysis. Ruth saw in her father's housepainting work a creative entrepreneurial occupation that
was related to aesthetics and to the visual environment. In her work as a secretary, she missed the
entrepreneurial aspect of her father's work. She also lacked a connection to her mother's activities
and an emphasis on culture and education that both her parents valued. Ruth was ready to
advance to a more responsible, challenging, and significant occupation.
Proposed solution. The idea of starting a business that would organize social events related to
arts and culture offered Ruth the opportunity to combine the creative entrepreneurial side of her
father with being a hostess like her mother in an area that was valued by both parents. The new
career choice offered a "good marriage" between the internal images of both her mother and
father, and it required greater responsibility, commitment, and professionalism. The personal
growth and professional challenge offered by the new job enabled Ruth to find new significance
in her work that eliminated her burnout.
In each of the four cases just described, there was a connection between the following elements:
1. The experience of burnout and a sense of failure in the individual's attempt to derive
existential significance through the particular chosen career
2. The structure and the content of the professional activities and interests of the significant
identification figures in the family of origin (especially the mother and the father) and the
individual's career choice
3. The relationship between the identification figures, between them and the individual and the
individual's career choice
DISCUSSION
As all six cases presented show, career burnout reflects a sense of failure in the quest to find
meaning in life through work. In every case, the person experienced burnout when the work no

longer seemed significant. The six cases also show that identification figures (primarily the
parents), their vocational choices, and the individual's identification and relationships with them
influence the content of a chosen career, its context, and the level of commitment to it. Our
proposed process for treating career burnout involves fostering a conscious awareness of these
connections and their influences.
The six examples show that the solutions for a career burnout problem can be very different, but
still related to unconscious dynamics. Each of the people presented came for counseling with the
same presenting problem--career burnout. Yet the change each required for solving their problem
was different. Four types of solution for a career burnout problem were mentioned. The four
solutions differ regarding the kind of change required, starting with a limited and superficial
change and ending with a deep and profound personality change.
The first type of change involves only occupational enrichment, which includes additions to the
individual's "occupational pie" (Morrison, as cited in James, 1996). Ralph is an example. As
described in the case study, the change that Ralph had to undergo to solve his burnout problem
was not very deep. It involved an addition to and an enrichment of activities. Oftentimes, the
addition is related to an aspect of a parent's activities (the parent in such cases tends to be the one
with whom the person's relationship was problematic). In the example, Ralph was able to
connect to his father's creative agriculture after mourning his father in a more complete and
accepting way. The mourning for the father revealed the unfinished business with him (regarding
their relationship) that Ralph experienced as burnout. Once the unconscious became conscious,
Ralph was able to find a satisfying solution to his career burnout problem.
The second type of change involves a change in the context of the work, such as from work in a
family business to work in a large corporation. Jack, who changed from a private company to a
large governmental office, is an example.
The third type of change involves a developmental change in the level of the work and includes
maturation in the person and increased complexity in the work. Ruth is an example. A
developmental change enabled her to find existential significance in her work in a way that was
not possible before.
The fourth type of change requires a change in the content of the occupation and involves a deep
emotional change of the type that occurs as a result of therapy. Joan, Adam, and Orly are
examples. In Orly's case, combating burnout required a change in the content of the work. Such a
change is based on a deep and profound emotional change in the relationship to a parent (or
parents) with whom and through whom the emotional change is experienced. Such a change
often involves great difficulty and pain. Happily, the change that follows is also great.
All six cases show a connection between the level of maturity, identification, and connection
with key figures in the family of origin and the career choices people make. The individual's
level of separation and individuation, the quality of connection with the identification figures,
and the quality of the internalized image of the occupation and the permission given or not given
for self-actualization are all determinants in the choice of a career, and they all are related to
burnout. Thus, they need to be taken into account during career counseling.

All six cases also indicated that revealing the problematic relationship with a parent (or with both
parents) facilitated the change. Making the unconscious conscious allowed personal growth and
turned the career burnout into an experience of growth. The self-evident conclusion is that
identifying the unconscious component in the choice of a career is a very useful tool in career
selection and development. It is critical in understanding and combating career burnout.
The technique that is recommended for career counselors is the career genogram. Like a regular
genogram, a career genogram describes the individual's family tree. But in a career genogram the
focus is on the occupations, hobbies, career preferences, visions, and self-actualization of all the
relevant family members. Questions to address include the names of parents and siblings; their
sex, age, occupations, and hobbies; the relationships with and between the parents; parent's
occupational satisfaction and disappointments; and the individual's own career history, and
vision, and the sense of significance they derive from their work. Other scholars suggest
expanding the career genogram to include three generations (Gysbers et al., 1998, chap. 9) and
adding questions about dominant values and "ghosts or legends" in the family (Dagley, 1984; as
used by Dagley, "ghosts" are people who are deceased but whose legacy continues to have an
impact; "legends" are family stories and myths that have impact on family members).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In the heated debate between academics and practitioners that reflects the schism between career
theory and practice (Savickas & Walsh, 1996), we suggest a way in which practice informs
theory and theory can contribute significantly to the practice of career counseling. Four bodies of
knowledge--psychoanalytic theory, existential psychology, burnout, and career counseling-combine to offer an innovative approach for understanding and treating cases of career burnout.
The case studies in this article illustrate that individuals' occupational choices and the levels of
self-actualization allowed or forbidden to them are related to unconscious layers that, once
identified, enable individuals to achieve a more accurate professional fulfillment that is the
antithesis of burnout.
The existential-psychodynamic approach, in addition to offering theoretical advancement in the
general area of occupational psychology, has an important implication for the field of career
counseling. It suggests a way to treat cases of career burnout and to direct people toward careers
that are likely to provide them with a sense of existential significance.
The six clinical cases presented demonstrate the application of the psychodynamic-existential
approach in the context of career counseling that was sought to resolve career burnout. Despite
the obvious problems inherent in drawing any conclusion on the basis of a small number of
clinical cases, these six cases suggest that a psychodynamic-existential analysis is critical to fully
understand career burnout and to provide an effective plan for combating it. The treatment plan
we have demonstrated in this article has three steps:
1. Identifying the conscious and unconscious reasons for the individual's career choice and how
the chosen career was expected to provide a sense of existential significance

2. Identifying the reasons for the individual's failure to derive a sense of existential significance
from the work and how this sense of failure is related to burnout
3. Identifying changes that will enable the individual to derive a sense of existential significance
from work
A psychodynamic-existential analysis requires listening to internal worlds. In the words of an
unknown Israeli poet, "Under the surface a man is like a river. Under the surface a man knows
where he is flowing."
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Ayala Malach-Pines is head of the Behavioral Sciences in Management program at the School of
Management, Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Oreniya Yafe-Yanai is the professional director of
the Adam Institute for Applied Psychology in Israel and a lecturer at Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Prof. Ayala Malach-Pines, School of
Management, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105 (e-mail: pinesa@nihul.bgu.ac.il
or pinesa@zahav.net.il).
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