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

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. 🙂

Or just plain rude.

I suppose it is better than being ignorant

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

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.

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 with Baggs.

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

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'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.

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

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.

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

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.... 🤷🏻‍♀️

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

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.

M0nica

To me it is a tautalogy.

exactly...

To me it is a tautalogy.

Indeed, you could say 'direct' or 'personal' as opposed to 'professional'.
I used the term recently in an 'animated discussion' when one of our friends was discussing the political situation in a foreign city. I have a very good friend who lives there, and knew that for many people in this city, their everyday life did not reflect the image given to the world.
I used the term 'lived experience' of my friend as to me, that is exactly what it is. Neither does it detract from valid political concerns that she and her friends skirt around.
We also use the term sometimes at our local history group, meaning 'what people lived through' rather than 'what has been written up'. To me, it clarifies things.

It's exactly the same if I experience it.. saying lived is obviously just a trend

I agree, AGA.

Re nannarose's comment, I'd distinguish the two experiences she is talking about with "direct" or "personal" as opposed to her professional 'indirect' experiences. All of them are ones she has "lived`'.

So yes, this is right in Pedants' Corner. But since we already had words like direct and personal to distinguish some of our lived experiences from others, using the phrase "lived experience" is superfluous and, as I suggested earlier, is sometimes used to give what we're saying a boost it doesn't really merit.

You have to be living to have an experience so "lived experience" is totally unnecessary.

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.

LOUISA1523

Baggs

Saying that one did a Masters dissertation on the experience(s) of a specific group of patients would mean exactly the same thing, which illustrates the point that prefixing experience with "lived" is unnecessary. I think such terms have turned into jargon/fashion-speak perhaps in the hope of making them seem to mean more than they do.

I guess its to differentiate between a one off experience or something that's occurred over a period of time...but yes its all jargon.....every essay I've written....every power point I've put together.....every training session I've ever given....its all jargon or the phrase of the moment .....I work for the nhs...I've heard them all...and thats whats expected....and that pays my bills 🤷‍♀️

Which reminds me that after a career writing copy to explain technical material to a lay audience, I went back to university to do an MA and we all had to write a preliminary essay for the staff to get a feeling for our existing knowledge of the field we would be studying.

My essay came back with only one comment 'Your sentences are too short'. or in other words the essay was easy to read and understand and academic essays are meant to hide ignorance behind long sentences and obfuscation. I ignored the comment

LOUISA1523

Baggs

Saying that one did a Masters dissertation on the experience(s) of a specific group of patients would mean exactly the same thing, which illustrates the point that prefixing experience with "lived" is unnecessary. I think such terms have turned into jargon/fashion-speak perhaps in the hope of making them seem to mean more than they do.

I guess its to differentiate between a one off experience or something that's occurred over a period of time...but yes its all jargon.....every essay I've written....every power point I've put together.....every training session I've ever given....its all jargon or the phrase of the moment .....I work for the nhs...I've heard them all...and thats whats expected....and that pays my bills 🤷‍♀️

Chuckle! 😊