The visibility of care and its paradoxes

ABSTRACT

The resistance to recognizing the importance of care and care professionals is notorious, as is their invisibility and their devaluation in a society that prefers to promote excellence, elites, and leaders. When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, care professionals were applauded as their visibility was glaring and their skills essential at a time when everyone's vulnerability was being exposed. But the value that society places on key workers does not make them truly visible. A fragment of our clinical work, alongside Capek's theatre and its robots, Chaplin's film The Kid, and Winnicott's work, highlight what caring means, the fundamental human values that underpin it, and those that oppose it today. We need to recognize the vulnerability in each of us, see sensitivity as a strength and not a weakness, and realize the importance of administering primary care in an adequate environment and with kindness and mutual concern. The road to the recognition of care activities is long, and means that we must carry on fighting to give care a central place in our democracies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (French) La resistance a reconnaitre l'importance du soin et des metiers qui en ont la charge, leur invisibilite et leur devaluation dans une societe qui promeut l'excellence et les << premiers de cordee sont notoires. Avec le Covid au debut de l'annee 2020, les professionnels du soin ont ete applaudis tant leur visibilite etait flagrante et leurs metiers essentiels a un moment ou la vulnerabilite de tous etait mise a nu. Mais la valeur que la societe octroie aux << premiers de corvee ne les rend pas veritablement visibles. Un fragment de notre clinique, ainsi que le theatre de Capek et ses robots, le cinema de Chaplin avec Le Kid et le travail de Winnicott viennent soutenir ce que prendre soin veut dire, les valeurs humaines fondamentales qui le fondent et celles qui s'y opposent aujourd'hui. Il convient de reconnaitre la vulnerabilite en chacun de nous, la sensibilite comme une force et non une faiblesse, l'importance des premiers soins dans un environnement suffisamment bon, dans la sollicitude et le souci mutuel. Le chemin de la reconnaissance des activites de soin est bien long, il nous engage a poursuivre sans faiblir la lutte pour donner au << prendre soin une place centrale dans nos democraties. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)