i wish i could remember where i heard about this collection of essays. i feel like it was on some feminist list of must read books, but when i searched online trying to find the post that recommended this to me, i couldn't i wish i had because then i would know the reason for my reading the empathy exams.
i have mixed feelings about this collection of essays. on one hand, some of the essays were really interesting and insightful. and on the other hand some of the essays were #whitegirlproblems. and not the funny white girl problems, i feel that i can related (see: hbo's girls) but more like the omg enough with the whining already.
but let's start with the good:
the opening essay, "the empathy exams" was really interested. i enjoyed learning about jamison's time as a medical actor. a medical actor, i learned, is a person that acts as a patient for medical students. they are given descriptions, the test is for the med students, they must ask questions and demonstrate empathy so that the patient reveals what is wrong with them. it was interesting to read about her experience as one and the patients that she portrayed. to be completely honest, i didn't really care about her whole talk on empathy but that could be because i am kind of heartless and therefore am rarely empathetic. she use the medical actor situations as a means to discuss an abortion and heart surgery, placing herself as a medical actor situation was an interesting way for her to explore what had happened to her.
"devil's bait" which focused on morgellon's disease, which i learned (i learned a lot) is not accepted by the medical world as a disease. its a skin condition were fibers and bumps appear on the skin. for the most part, the people who have it seemed crazy and unfortunately, i agree with the medical world as to whether or not it is real. it was sad to see how people were suffering and it seemed more psychological to me than anything kind of physical condition. and like jamison, i do feel bad because the suffering of the individuals with the disease is very much real though the disease isn't. i will say i kind of wanted to call bullshit on jamison for trying to act like she wasn't exploiting these people, gaining their trust by saying she believed them though she had her doubts. but yeah she did exploit them, the proof is in the fact that she wrote and published this chapter.
"la frontera" about mexico and its drug woes, reminded me of my friend dan as i read. the only thing i really took from this chapter was the art piece she discussed at the end. one of the individuals she met, Marco shared about a piece did:
it was designed to resemble his local yellow pages. it listed all the stores and services named for the gulf: siderufgica del golfo, el restaurant del golfo, transportes linea del golf. in the sport wehre el cartel del golfo would have fallen, the line read: puded anunciarse aqui. addressed to the cartel, to it's rivals, to it's victims: you can advertise here.
demonstrated that all of this violence is unnecessary to advertise their power.
"pain tours" made me uncomfortable because i can not believe that there is a gang tour of los angeles. but there really is, i googled. i couldn't believe that people really wanted to go on a tour of hood life. i live in a community that has been ruined due to gangs, and i can't imagine every wanting to tour and learn about gangs like some disneyland attraction. its horrible to think that people are that ignorant and revere a type of lifestyle that causes so much violence. white people really have no idea how scary it is to live in a community in which gangs run the streets.
"the immortal horizon", i enjoyed learning about the barkley marathons. if you have never heard about it, google it. it's pretty cool.
"pain tours (II)" because of course my girl, frida Kahlo was discussed. it just reminded me that i need to read her diaries. i checked them out once but they felt too chaotic.
"lost boys" it was interesting to learn about that "west memphis three" case.
now for the bad:
"morphology of a hit" this essay kind of ruined my positive outlook of this collection. and i started to notice that jamison was a bit of a drama queen. in it, she described an incident using some old author's outline for how to write a story. the issue i had was what i felt was her intent to have the reader imagined that she was raped verses what actually happened. she was punched in the face. and really i mean she was punched in the face. that is a very scary experience and i am not sure how i would handle it, but i know i wouldn't try to liken it to sexual assault. i mean i know all violence towards women is wrong but it was awkward that she attempted to frame her punching as a rape. i felt like it did not demonstrate empathy towards rape victims.
"grand unified theory of female pain". as a feminist, i hate to betray my people but this essay was annoying. i loved all the women that she mentioned bjork, tori amos, etc. but instead of being an article that created a space in which women can suffer and embrace pain without being a stereotype, she instead reinforced the stereotype with her whining.
overall, here is the issue that i had with jamison. at the end of the day, she is a privileged white female and though she may have suffered in life, the empathy she tries to express towards others is insulting instead of comforting. it's total white woman's burden. everything she discussed was turned towards how it affected her which i feel really isn't example of empathy but selfishness. i don't know, maybe i am being too judgey.
i enjoyed the random little facts that i learned about as mentioned in the good section, but for the most part, this taught me nothing about empathy.
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