ABSTRACT
The notion of person-centered care is widely associated with the aspirational goals of ethical healthcare. Feminist relational thinking has made important contributions to the theory and practice of person-centered care by explaining and emphasizing that a person’s values, preferences and capabilities (including for autonomy) are socially shaped. These ideas are now relatively well established, but they don’t suffice for an adequate conception of person-centered care: attention also needs to be paid to the ways in which illness and other experiences can disrupt a person’s identity, and to the dynamic nature of a person’s becoming. Feminist thinking can also be helpful here. In this chapter we advocate the adoption of insights from feminist posthumanist ethics and practices that “stay with the trouble” of people’s complexities and fluidity.
