On the relational dynamics of caring: a psychotherapeutic approach to emotional and power dimensions of women’s care work

Care is double-edged and paradoxical, inspiring a vast range of strong feelings in both care-givers and care-recipients. This paper draws on ideas about psychotherapeutic relationships to offer a theorisation of the complex emotional and power dynamics and imaginative geographies of care. Examining the humanistic approach developed by Carl Rogers as well as the psychoanalytic tradition, I advance an interpretation of psychotherapeutic practices that foregrounds the fundamental importance of the emotional and power-inflected relationship between practitioners and those with whom they work. I show how different traditions offer conceptualisations of the shape of therapeutic relationships that are highly relevant to consideration of the emotional and power dynamics of giving and receiving care. Against this background I discuss current debates about care, emotions and power, drawing especially on feminist and disability perspectives and arguing that psychotherapeutic approaches offer a powerful lens through which to understand the emotional and power dynamics of caring relationships. I conclude by emphasising how this theorisation helps to illuminate ubiquitous features of women’s care work

Tretja pot? Moralnosti, etike in družine

Anthony Giddens v knjigi Tretja pot oriše nov normativni okvir za Nove laburiste in predloge politik, ki izhajajo iz njega. Na temelju svoje diagnoze aktualnih družbeno političnih problemov predlaga novo razmerje med pravicami in dolžnostmi in na tem izhodišču podrobno razpravlja o vprašanjih blaginjske in družinske politike. Avtorica v pričujočem članku kritično analizira njegov normativni okvir in trdi, da bi bil precejšen del zamisli politike na način tretje poti bolj utemeljen in prečiščen, če bi vzel v ozir skrb. V članku prikaže, kakšne posledice bi imelo to, če bi etiko skrbi vzeli za normativne smernice novih programskih zamisli, in primerja britansko razpravo z nedavnim predlogom politik na Nizozemskem. Avtorica trdi, da bi morali skrb razumeti kot demokratično prakso in da demokratično državljanstvo predpostavlja, da bi morali imeti vsi enak dostop do dajanja in prejemanja skrbi

Affective equality : who cares?

Human beings are not just economic actors, devoid of relationality; rather, they are interdependent and dependent with a deep capacity for moral feeling and attaching. The presumption that people are mere units of labour, movable from one country to another as production requires, is therefore an institutionalised form of affective injustice. As love, care and solidarity involve work, affective inequalities also occur when the burdens and benefits of these forms of work are unequally distributed. Affective inequality is an acutely gendered problem given the moral imperative on women to care, and an acute problem for all of humanity given that vulnerability and inter/dependency is endemic to the human condition.Not applicableEmbargo until Feb 2011 - AV 20/9/2010 ti,ke.kpw27/9/10 Released 11/3/11 - O