The phrase "lived experience"

[ifitpleasesandsparkles]

Where has this come from? Why don't people just say "my experience". You have to be alive to have experiences. It's tautologous and sounds pretentious. Your life is your life and it's full of experiences. How can you have an unlived experience?

I assume it's to differentiate from experiencing a situation yourself rather than having experience of a situation through eg your job as a doctor or a social worker. Agree it's a bit overly emotive.

*to differentiate experiencing...from

I've found it to be a really useful distinction between professionals (9- 5 job and qualification), and lived experience (lived and breathed the 24 hour life of it).

Invariably, lived experience was far more useful it terms of actual practical support.

YANBU.

This annoys me as much as 'this is my truth......'

(When all they mean is this is how I see it...)

@dinosforall

I assume it's to differentiate from experiencing a situation yourself rather than having experience of a situation through eg your job as a doctor or a social worker. Agree it's a bit overly emotive.

The type of people who use this phrase come across as very "me me me."

I see it in job adverts ie a charity might want someone with lived experience of being looked after. My experience wouldn’t be lived (by me), it would be someone else’s I talked about or my experience of their experiences.

It's a load of bollocks.

Not much better than "living my best life". Trite

@jendifer

I see it in job adverts ie a charity might want someone with lived experience of being looked after. My experience wouldn’t be lived (by me), it would be someone else’s I talked about or my experience of their experiences.

How is this different from saying "someone with experience of being looked after"?

I despise this phrase.

So overly emotive

Apparently, it dates back to Dilthey (1833-1911).

So not recent.

I remember using the term back when I was at university some decades ago.

At work we use experts by experience. As opposed to experts by training. I work in mental health.

I always thought it meant direct personal experience.
So a midwife or doctor might be said to have childbirth/maternity experience as they have assisted women in childbirth in a professional capacity.
Whereas lived experience of childbirth means actually giving birth yourself.

Although I suppose some might disagree that the former counts as "childbirth experience", so to them the phrase would be a tautology.

I work with a very specific client group. One staff member has lived experience and I would value her input over anyone else's on the team. I think it's a valid term.

A bit like @jendifer, I'd expect it to be used in contexts where there's ambiguity. If a job ad or a media request says 'we want someone with experience of foster care' then a social worker might think 'I have 10 years experience working in this sector, great, they want me'. If they say 'lived experience' I'd expect it wouldn't mean the social worker but rather a person who'd been fostered or who'd been a foster carer themselves.

Same with all sorts of areas of life where 'experience' could mean the experience of the experts/professionals working in the field, or the people actually living through whatever it is.

I think sometimes people sound pretentious because they just use it to add an extra buzzwordiness to what they say, though!

I suspect it means something specific in qualitative academic scientific research, but gets used in weird ways on the edge of that discipline.

It's an important term to differentiate between people who understand an issue from the inside, and people who have just read about it, or been involved in the life of someone else who experiences it (whether as a friend, family member, or HCP).

It's good that people are taking it more seriously now, and are starting to listen to people who actually know what X is like and what could be improved and how.

What about personal experience or first hand experience?

Lived experience makes me want to gag.

It makes sense to me if talking about personal vs professional experience. e. g. lived experience of being an alcoholic vs someone who has worked with people with alcohol problems.

But I think it is often used to shut down debate. I have lived experience of being a woman and might refer to that when discussing sexism with a man. But if I say 'You can't say x, you're denying my lived experience' then I'm not really acknowledging that I am but a single data point, and I'm not actually addressing the points he has made. Although we shouldn't deny that that my lived experience as a woman will give me a certain perspective.

I prefer it to 'speak your truth' or 'stand in your truth'. I feel mortified if anyone uses those phrases!

As an example, we use it in Global and Public Health to refer to women's lived experiences in low and middle income countries. It refers to more than experience. Doesn't bug me, think it's descriptive enough.

@ifitpleasesandsparkles

What about personal experience or first hand experience?

Lived experience makes me want to gag.

Neither of those mean the same as lived experience.

I've had both personal experience and first-hand experience of the prison system. But my personal first-hand experience has been as an independent visitor within security clearance and weekly access to prisoners within the secure areas.

Only prisoners have lived experience, so if a prisoner rehabilitation organisation was asking for someone with lived experience, I would not be the right person for the job, so they'd be right to use the term.

You might not like the term, but it has a meaning and a purpose.

I work in mental health and that phrase is used often. I think in our case it really helps describe the 24/7 nature of MH illness as opposed to being trained in it.

Don't understand why it riles you so much OP.

If only you had the "lived experience" of how pretentious you sound, you'd be a bit less "me me me"

I’ve never really heard the term before - don’t work in a sector where it is relevant (boring and corporate with no people elements)

But I quite like it. I think it sums up well the difference between me having personally lived through an experience and a friend who has maybe experienced the same event 2nd hand, so it happened to their mum / sister etc. They understand it but have not FELT it.

I can see why it might annoy, it’s very much up their with “speak my truth” I agree. But personally I like it. And I’m glad to read so many people saying it’s essential to certain fields - health care, mental health, childcare etc etc