Burn-out and discouragement: when a sense of failure can serve as a learning experience

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Summary. Reviewing an oncologic case within the context of general medicine, rises a reflection on how to encourage the therapist when he himself becomes discouraged. Burn-out provides a good example of the sense of discouragement that can affect people involved in helping professions, when external and individual factors no longer counterbalance each other and lead to a sense of unease that can have negative repercussions on the therapist’s health and efficiency, as well as on the patient and on the patient-therapist relationship. The extreme situation considered, which can be likened to all conditions of chronic physical or mental illness, shows how the despondency represented by burn-out can provide an opportunity for reflection.