To HATE the phrase "lived experience"?

[ThisFluentBiscuit]

Pet peeve incoming:

By definition, experience is lived! You can hardly have an experience without living it, fgs! And what's the opposite of lived experience? An experience that you've had, yet haven't lived? It's complete nonsense. It's used to sound falsely clever when an argument is weak, like "In my personal experience." Well, of course your experience is personal! You would hardly say, "In my neighbour's experience, I find Florida too cold in December."

And it's officially wrong, because it's a tautology. Like "top-floor penthouse."

I don't know whether it's the innate stupidity of the phrase or the fact that it's a linguistic fad that annoys me the most.

"stamps off"

No, you have experience of treating those medical problems. You don't have experience of them. Let's take a broken leg. If you told someone new that you have experience of broken legs, obviously the listener would assume that you meant you've broken your leg more than one time in the past. You would tell them that you have experience of treating broken legs if you wanted to convey what you mean. You would only say "I have experience of broken legs" to an audience who already know what you do. Saying that you have experience of broken legs when you have never broken one is shorthand for treating them.

Indeed. I don’t think OP wants to understand this.

No.

You have lived experience of supporting people with autism. AKA you support people with autism.

You also have lived experience of knowing people with autism. AKA you know people with autism.

People with autism have lived experience of living with autism. AKA those people have autism.

The phrase 'lived experience' is utter nonsensical and just used by wokists. Either to disregard other people's experiences or they have 'main character syndrome' and nobody else's opinion matters.

It’s an adjective. People use adjectives to add nuance to bald statements.

Right up there with “authentic self”

YADNBU. It is used as an excuse to claim legitimacy by basing decisions on the anecdotal evidence of a select few (usually with the ‘correct’ opinions) rather than properly research or assess the views of the many.

It reaches its Nadir in ‘lived experience expert panals’ for the Scottish Government where half a dozen of so unrepresentative politically motivated individuals are selected and given power to direct eg bill to meet their own needs. And this is used to legitimise the absence of proper research.

No, I think you could say you've experinced racism, if you've experinced it happening. It doesn't have to have happened to YOU in order for you to experince it, if it's happening around you.

There are loads of phrases I detest (my leave favourite right now is 'needless to say...' - so don't say it!) but I actually think the phrase 'lived experience' has its place.

I disagree.

If someone in medicine told me they had experience in my clinical issue, I would assume they meant experience in treating it. There own lived experience isn't necessarily helpful in that situation.

Yes. And people need to keep their whole selves at home, and only bring their work selves to work.

A related phrase is expert by experience which is used to differentiate from professional expertise.

I'd love to know how.

You can't experience something if you're dead.

You can observe something as a bystander, but 'lived experience' is a great example of tautology.

Of course it is relevant. It’s part of my job to ensure the text makes sense and isn’t gibberish. I’m not working on academic texts either.

To me, it’s on a par with using myself instead of me. A longer word/more words to make you look more intelligent, only it has the opposite effect. It’s also very tied in with identity politics.

That is my experience (no need for lived, the experience is mine) working in publishing. And it simply didn’t exist 10 years ago.

It’s a very useful term, and used in multiple ways.

I would reflect on the reasons behind why it enrages you.

This is about your reaction - so when someone uses that term what comes up for you? Is their experience more worthy than yours? They are seen as more important somehow? You don’t feel very experienced yourself? Look at your own reactions. It’s just a word, so your reaction is what is important here.

This.

I have to say I didn’t realise that this is even a phrase. I have used these two words put together - on the MN education boards - when pointing out to two other posters that yes I do know what my disabled child has experienced in education, and no I am not lying. I was pointing out my fact vs their baseless opinion.

You mean the University of Life?

That's what people used to say for 'experience' rather than having a degree.

But historically people didn’t make this distinction. They just thought they knew better than people with actual experience. In mental health, this was and is a massive issue. I’m going to hide this thread now as I’m getting really annoyed with you but please at least try to understand - right now you’re not even trying.

It's wrong. It's a tautology. Until you can explain to me how I can go on a cruise without experiencing it, you won't convince me that "lived experience" is an accurate phrase. If you want to convey an intensity or a depth or breadth of experience, you need to express that, instead of implying that it's possible to have experience without having lived it.

This is a very good description.

We use it in my line of work, theres a big difference. I experience the impact of poverty and neglect when i go into my work families homes, whereas it is the families lived experience.

Another example within health, given that many are banging on about that.

My mother had terminal cancer (she just had it. She didn’t have lived experience of it. Using more words doesn’t change the facts.)

Her oncologist was experienced in treating cancer. Whether her oncologist had ever had cancer herself was bloody irrelevant. Her “lived experience” was not the experience at hand.

It’s a shame then that you are so unable to grasp the meaning of this phrase, if it’s part of your job. It’s not like using ‘myself’.

But that person you were talking to would surely be a doctor as you've said, and their own personal experience isn't something they'd mention (usually.)

So they'd not need to clarify 'lived' or not.

I thought the OP was having a light hearted rant but after that last post it’s starting to get quite unpleasant. I work in the health and social care sector where the term ‘lived experience’ is used frequently and I’ve never heard a single complaint about it. I don’t use it to make myself sound clever. I use the term to give more meaning and impact about some of the most vulnerable people in our society to try and effect positive outcomes to the quality of their lives,

Maybe life is too short sometimes.

I hate the phrase "lean in" for the same reasons.

You mean "do something" fgs - can't stand these Americanisms.

You are still misunderstanding how it is used op.