Blog #9
I really enjoyed reading “The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison. I loved that Jamison connected her narrator’s real life to the narrator’s scripted character’s life. The character scripts/profiles of the character the narrator played evolved from the fictitious character, Stephanie, until the narrator and her real life became the patient profile. The narrator and her life story becoming their own patient profile shows how a real person with a real story can become nothing more than just a story on paper, a character to be acted out. This short story emphasized a different kind of empathy. I have classified empathy as understanding and nearly feeling the emotions of other people in an effort to show compassion and sympathy. Jamison focuses on an empathy where people may not necessarily understand what a person is experiencing, but instead listens to what the person is going through to try to understand and provide support. Jamison also wants an empathy where people do not selfishly project themselves into the other person’s shoes in an effort to connect and imagine what the other person is feeling and going through. People never know exactly how and what another person is feeling or experiencing. I found Jamison’s form of empathy interesting because we read fiction by placing ourselves in the characters’ roles to determine what we would do in their positions. Trying to not project on characters is very difficult, as fiction is used to acquire skills and learn what to do in different situations that have never been experienced before in real life. We can use Jamison’s empathy when reading fiction to fill in the gaps of our understanding and think about why things happen/are the way they are in fiction, using our context from the story and our experiences. The stories that are seen in science are often the stories of sick patients. These stories are catalysts for starting research on different diseases and disorders and for doctors wanting to help others. In medicine, doctors have what is called bedside manner. Some doctors are very good with connecting and empathizing with their patients, while others can come across as aloof, cold, and focused on their job. The Empathy Exams was not only to test medical students’ knowledge of illnesses, but also to test their ability to empathize with the fake patients, in tone, manner, and voicing their concern. It is to get these future doctors to see their patients as not just patients with illness, but as human beings with real feelings and problems.










