Burnout as an identity rupture in the life course: a longitudinal narrative method.

The methodological article explores the process by which identity rupture generated by work-related burnout is encountered and managed over time. The article presents an in-depth case study based on follow-up interviews with a woman in her sixties. The study attempts to discover what kinds of continuities and changes in meaning making patterns are included in the burnout process and how these meaning making patterns are used to perform and negotiate identity stabilities and changes in the life course. The study is part of a larger longitudinal qualitative investigation following a group of Finnish middle-aged employees in the context of burnout rehabilitation. As a result of analysis, four thematically and temporally overlapping meaning making patterns were identified: defining and legitimating illness, encountering and resisting the 'vulnerable' Other in self, developing and testing a new identity, and recapturing the past self. The burnout trajectory seems to consist of temporally stable meaning making patterns, such as legitimation of illness, preservation of the past self and resistance of the patient role. However, it also includes changes in meaning making that imply positively interpreted self-change. The study contributes to the methodological development of qualitative health and life course research.