How does a 'lived experience' differ from an 'experience'?

M0nica

To me it is a tautalogy.

exactly...

I think inserting the 'lived' is unnecessary but we seem to prefer more flowery language. Nobody can just 'show' things now they must 'showcase' them. Have you noticed how many people now say 'also' and then add 'as 'well': We will do A but we will also do B as well. Surely that is tautology.

nightowl

I see your point Baggs but I also agree with Louisa in that I think it has a meaning in a specific context. For example, when advertising for social work panel members, it often states something along the lines ‘professionals from different backgrounds such as medical, education, social work and those with lived experience such as care leavers. It doesn’t imply that their experience is any more valuable, but that it is as valuable, which hasn’t always been acknowledged. You could say personal rather than lived experience but either way, I think it’s an overdue inclusion of the people services usually affect.

Anyway I’ll stop waffling now.

I agree with this and actually it's really important that vulnerable people are represented properly by people that do know what it is like/what specific struggles etc so that funding and support is delivered effectively

I'm sorry about your friend Monica and I'm sorry about your daughter too Baggs

an overdue inclusion of the people services usually affect.

I agree with this too, nightowl. I just think there were (are) plenty of other words that express the same thing and I think the expression "lived experience" has been used in a negative way.

It's just personal preference after all. People will say what they want and so long as it's comprehensible.... 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's just another boring buzzword, and it'll die a death hopefully soon, to be replaced with another useless 'in' word.

Looked up meaning. Can be an observation. Therefore experience could mean you saw someone fall off a cliff, whereas if it's a lived experience you fell off it yourself. Not sure if people using the expression have this in mind though.

To Eddiecat
Absolutely. We need you and should even havesupport if needed it shouldn't be just a labour of love

I'm with Baggs.
You can only 'experience something if you are alive, so a 'lived experience' is a rubbish expression made up by someone not very bright who thinks it sounds good and more important or significant than the single word. And sadly, many other not so bright people have been taken in by it.

Incidentally, I intend absolutely no insult to those people: It's just a fact.

Sorry for your loss M0nica. There’s the truth, and there’s one’s experience. Adding my and lived does seem US centric, but these terms have been used in professional therapeutic circles for decades in the UK. I’m pretty sure they originate from the US but have no evidence for that.

I agree with Baggs.

I’m so sorry about your daughter Baggs and sorry about your friend Monica.

Nannarose

There is a difference, I think, and a valuable one. As a midwife, for example, I have a great deal of experience of many different pregnancies, labour, births etc. Having my own children gives me 'lived experience'.
It adds depth and colour, but doesn't cover other people's different experiences.
Distinguishing the 2 is important.

Excellent example Nannarose

I agree. It seems fashionable these days to use stupid tautology. I think it's supposed to make whoever uses these phrases sound educated but it does the opposite.

Well that’s a few of us told! Not so bright, making ourselves look the opposite of educated. But no insult intended

I suppose it is better than being ignorant

Or just plain rude.

Bungee-jumping is an experience I’d never want, but if I’d ever done it I suppose that would have been a ‘lived’ experience. Or an experienced experience. 🙂

Witzend

Bungee-jumping is an experience I’d never want, but if I’d ever done it I suppose that would have been a ‘lived’ experience. Or an experienced experience. 🙂

Don't think I'd even live through it!

For me, a lived experience denotes any and all temporal experience of a person; whereas the other sort of experience after death is timeless , eternal, and not subjective.

Baggs So, so true. I have had the loss of a daughter then DH within 3 years. So much has been lived, is being lived, and still to be lived.

M0nica

To me it is a tautalogy.

no its not. I used to work in the NHS and have a lot of experience of palliative and end of life care. I also have the lived experience of caring for my husband at the end of his life....not tautology, different.

Yes was going to say similar greenlady. Often used by disabled people as for many years carers, teachers & doctors were the people who were asked about their needs as they had experience "with " that disability. Now we have shifted to asking the disabled person what they need - they're not "experts" (same root?) but they live it every day,

valdavi

Yes was going to say similar greenlady. Often used by disabled people as for many years carers, teachers & doctors were the people who were asked about their needs as they had experience "with " that disability. Now we have shifted to asking the disabled person what they need - they're not "experts" (same root?) but they live it every day,

this exactly

I will repeat what I said up thread, one person has a disability and is living with it, the peeople who see and work with someone with a disability have a completely different experience, but both are experiences and both experiences are personal to the person., they are just different experiences.

M0nica

I will repeat what I said up thread, one person has a disability and is living with it, the peeople who see and work with someone with a disability have a completely different experience, but both are experiences and both experiences are personal to the person., they are just different experiences.

exactly ..... we cannot live someone elses experience we can only do it vicariously..

To me, 'a lived experience' describes someone's life over a period of time, whereas 'an experience' is most frequently used for random experiences.
Though any difference is far less clear once you start talking about 'having experienced something' versus 'having lived experience of something'.