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Relational ties of love – A psychosocial proposal for ethics of compassionate care in health and public services

Market-based freedom of choice and user autonomy occupies a prominent position on the policy-maker agendas in many countries, increasingly more so than equity of access or equality of opportunity. The essay discusses how the introduction of market logic and consumerism in public health care services relies on, and taps into, unconscious dynamics and fantasies of invincibility while ignoring precariousness of life and our infinite potential to experience vulnerability. This creates toxicity in organisations and corrupts the moral institutional fabric. Drawing on psychosocial approaches inspired by various strands of psychoanalysis, and the theory of affective attachments to social norms offered by Judith Butler, I propose an ethics of relationality and compassionate care for the unknown ‘other’, as a way of counteracting these developments.