Common ideals of self-realisation and makeability overshadow the harsher realities of misfortune, illness and suffering. According to care ethicist Jeannet van de Kamp, this fiction is linked to current social polarisation. To break through it, we must recognise the lived experiences of real people as a source of knowledge.
Van de Kamp’s research shows that our society has an overly rosy image of the ideal life. 'That image assumes that people can choose and shape their own identity, health and happiness. But this is a fiction that real people can never truly live up to,' she says.
The ‘Ltd-Me’
According to Van de Kamp, since the 1980s and 1990s, ‘the human being’ has increasingly been regarded as an individual who sees themselves as a creative entrepreneur of the self. As a kind of “Ltd-Me”, one chooses an attractive identity, markets it, and bears the risks of success or failure. Van de Kamp describes where this widely accepted model of agency often leads: 'Performing happiness on stage, while backstage experiencing loneliness and misery.'
Corporate Logic
Not only individuals, but also political and social institutions—and even the state—are transforming into creative enterprises operating according to corporate logic. 'Individuals who fall through the cracks end up in the transformed care sector, such as the rapidly growing psycho- and self-help industries, which largely focus on restoring the ‘Ltd-Me’. The former welfare state has turned into an individualised, neoliberal self-care state,' says Van de Kamp.
Burning Out
These findings echo the frequent reports of performance and competitive pressure within healthcare, social welfare and education. 'It is realistic to expect that many people burn out,' she states, 'and that those who drop out are quickly regarded as superfluous.' According to her, politicians do sense that something is amiss, but within the dominant ideology of makeability, scientific knowledge remains the guiding force, while the 'lived moral experiential knowledge of acting individuals' barely carries weight.
Care Ethics
Van de Kamp also reflects critically on her own field, care ethics. She argues that contemporary care ethics pays too little attention to the changed conditions of the present day. Much of what feminist-oriented care ethicists once fought for has been absorbed—albeit in distorted form—into today’s culture capitalism. This includes the recognition of care, of experiential knowledge, of life as it is lived, and of the importance of relationships and recognition.
Realism
Van de Kamp calls for a realistic understanding of how people live and survive. 'No one can live—let alone survive—without the care of others. We are all, at some point, struck by illness, loss, accident or suffering,' she says. 'Only by taking that reality seriously can policy, care and society become more humane.'
Research Sources
For her research, Van de Kamp used literature from care ethics, healthcare studies, (cultural) sociology and culture-capitalist marketing consultancy.