“Caring and its Impossibilities: A Lacanian Perspective” [excerpt]
Stijn Vanheule
Organizational and Social Dynamics 2(2): 264-284 (2002)
WHAT ABOUT CAREGIVING PROFESSIONS?
Freud’s and Lacan’s comments regarding neighbour-love and altruism
are directed towards a general attitude rather than professional
caregiving. We suggest the same mechanisms especially apply to
professional caregiving (cf. Ansermet and Sorrentino, 1991; De Soria,
1996).
People engaged in the helping professions are often driven by strong
and sometimes idealised ideas about charity. Many start their jobs with
a rescue-fantasy, wanting to remedy other’s problems. What appeals to
them is the lack they perceive in the person needing help which they
long to suture in one way or another. The ideal of caregiving is thus an
ego ideal for most caregivers. It has a strong narcissistic value (cf.
Grosch and Olsen, 1994) and is rooted in the personal oedipal history
(cf. Freud, 1957; Ferenczi, 1955).
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