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

Valdavi wrote:

" 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,"

I'm glad of your insightful view, which I don't think had been explained so explicitly
What do you think of the idea that reportage , dramas, and novels can teach us vicariously?

I suppose they're the nearest we can come to appreciating someone else's "lived experience". Especially maybe novels, where I think you come to identify more closely with narrators.

Valdavi, it seems we are on the same train.

I can see that this phrase can have a narrow and specific meaning within the disabled community and those who work with them.

But in actuality the phrase is used in all sorts of contexts that have no connection whatsoever with this narrow definition in a specialised circumstance. Turn the radio on or tv and people talk about everything they do as lived experiences they have 'lived experiences' of catching trains, buying houses, having baths, going to university.

This is the use of the phrase I was complaining about. I am currently having a lived experience of posting on GN. Next time I will try to just experience it and see if it feels any different.

There is no need for the word 'lived' with 'experience.
When I had cancer I had my experience of cancer.
Others had their experience of cancer.
If you have an experience you have to be living.

The only time I’ve heard the use of “lived experience” is when someone is justifying a position filled with a candidate with no formal education.!

I have 'lived experience' of living with someone who drinks too much - that is an area of expertise for me. It means ''expertise through lived experience'' - whereas someone else's expertise and knowledge of the topic is more about their research etc or in supporting people in this situation - but they were at some distance from living the day to day reality.

A social worker can specialise in adoption and fostering and yet they have no 'lived experience' of it until they've adopted or fostered a child themselves and it's been part of their personal life over a period of time.

I repeat, the definition you are using Birthto10 is the use of the ohrase in a specific and specalised context. What puzzles me is why it is used in general context.

Did you have a living experience of going to bed last night, or did you just experience it? I have tried both, seeing going to bed as an experience, and the next night describing it as a living experience. I really could not tell the difference.

I think 'dead experienced' was a description used in the 60s.

Birthto110

I have 'lived experience' of living with someone who drinks too much - that is an area of expertise for me. It means ''expertise through lived experience'' - whereas someone else's expertise and knowledge of the topic is more about their research etc or in supporting people in this situation - but they were at some distance from living the day to day reality.

A social worker can specialise in adoption and fostering and yet they have no 'lived experience' of it until they've adopted or fostered a child themselves and it's been part of their personal life over a period of time.

This. In context specifically of care services and making sure that voices are heard directly not just via the professionals involved.

But not then borrowed for general use.

I suppose as we move forward in language new phrases are coined to extend the description of the subject matter. To mind springs the phrase: the unvarnished truth.

We can all experience situations involving eg deafness (parents, partners etc) but only those with hearing problems have “lived experience”
Similarly with funerals I suppose- we have mostly had experience of losing pets, parents or grandparents, elderly family members etc but perhaps losing children or partners or someone very close makes it a “lived” experience?
Just musing

Haven't a clue. It sounds as if it may be something to do with all this Wellness and Mindfulness philosophy that's become trendy in recent years especially among celebrities - and has made Gwyneth Paltrow rather well off by persuading those with more money than sense to buy her various spirit and mind-enhancing garbage.

Hello M0nica I find the "lived experience" phrase irritating too. My daughter worked in health research for some years - and it definitely was "a thing" there!

What I really just want to comment on though is your statement earlier:

academic essays are meant to hide ignorance behind long sentences and obfuscation

Neither my academic essays, nor my husband's, nor our dissertations or my husband's thesis were hiding ignorance behind long sentences and obfuscation.

They were, however, nuanced and detailed - and in order to explain our thoughts I expect they were more complex than our "usual" styles and they would have employed sub-clauses (for example). This would be to properly explain the many different, detailed but connected parts.

Not all complex writing is really that complicated.

Just saying.

Just come across an example of the phrase 'Lived Experience' in a dementia magazine where they talk about bringing together those who have dementia and those who care for them in a social setting.

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.

Which is why they are differentiated.

If an employer is looking for someone with a qualification in disability care, that is different from wanting someone who has experience of caring for the disabled and different again from someone living with that particular disability.

Far from being a redundancy it adds nuance and specificity that a concentration on brevity removes.

I haven't read the whole thread. I have been too busy experiencing life which presumably is living an experience as opposed to experiencing vicariously.