IN thing is ‘burnout,’ ” a
Times-Picayune columnist wrote. “And if you don’t come down with it, possibly you’re a bum.” Even Freudenberger said he was burned out on burnout. Still, in 1985 he published a new book, “Women’s Burnout: How to Spot It, How to Reverse It, and How to Prevent It.” In the era of anti-feminist backlash chronicled by Susan Faludi, the press loved quoting Freudenberger saying things like “You
can’t have it all.”
Freudenberger died in 1999 at the age of seventy-three. His obituary in the
Times noted, “He worked 14 or 15 hours a day, six days a week, until three weeks before his death.” He had run himself ragged.