Playing the part: reflections on aspects of mere performance in the customer-client relationship

This paper attempts to analyse Diderot's conception of the actor's skills in relation to the construction of professional competence. In particular, it seeks to give attention to the ways in which mere performance is required in the servicing of a role. When Diderot compares the actor's skill as similar to that of the whore he is making reference to the way in which the nature of the relationship with the other - actor-audience, customer-client - involves putting merely a part of oneself into the role, into the performance, while others aspects of the person are held back. There are many day-to-day references to the experience of work in such terms and the notion of work as "abuse" is not unfamiliar. Here the intention is to analyse the relationship between performance and the emotional repertoire which is used in the service of such performance.