Ethical Labor: The Ground Between Experience Near and Experience Distant: Discussion of Cushman’s Two World’s or One

In this paper, the author problematizes the distinction between experience near and experience distant by suggesting that this bifurcation has everything to do with whether we think in terms of Cushman’s one complex world or split worlds. The ground between experience near and experience distant is the ground on which our histories, cultures, traumas, and differences exist. The author questions whether the cherished belief that the gold standard of hearing from the patient and staying close to the patient’s experience and view of reality is enough anymore. Our therapeutic passive receptiveness—our willingness to be taught- could be felt by our patients as disinterest, prejudice against, superiority, or non-reflected upon privilege. We need to be ready and willing to communicate or signal our openness, respect, and curiosity about the lived experience, histories, and cultures of those different from ourselves. Ethical labor is made up of the empathic stretch to know and research those aspects of our patients lives and familial cultural and social histories that simply cannot yet be delivered in affectively accessible forms. We must try to understand that what may feel like experience distance is so very much more than that.