Reframing authenticity in dementia care practice: Is the absence of felt empathy ethically permissible?

This article summarises key arguments from a forthcoming paper which examines the ethical legitimacy of performative empathy in dementia care, asking whether the appearance of empathic behaviour remains morally defensible in narrowly defined circumstances when genuine emotional attunement is absent. Drawing on emotional labour theory, care ethics, and multidimensional models of empathy, it distinguishes affective from cognitive empathy to explore how caregivers often maintain calm, validation, and emotional containment under emotional strain. The article argues that performative empathy is conditionally permissible when understood as professional self-regulation rather than deception. Its ethical legitimacy depends on caregiver intent, limited duration, and organisational support, and it should not substitute for structural investment in care systems. Positioned as an analytic construct of professional empathic practice, this article offers a conceptual examination of how empathy is enacted, regulated, and morally evaluated in the parent paper.