Blog Post #3:
I believe Jamison has different views on empathy than Ma and Bloom, but also partially expands on Ma’s views. Ma appears to think that empathy is necessary to develop a better understanding of certain topics, that one needs to be able to empathize in order to understand. Meanwhile, Bloom does not appear to believe in the benefits of empathy, he believes that empathy clouds the mind too much and does not allow for one to be able to help the person they are empathizing with; Bloom believes that compassion is a much better tool for helping people as you can acknowledge what the person is feeling without actually having those same feelings, allowing you to be more helpful. Jamison’s views on empathy are different than Ma’s because of how she believes that empathizing with someone over something you don’t really experience on your own almost belittles the person’s experience in a way. That is why when conversing with a person who has Morgellons about their experiences with it, Jamison thinks, “Do I believe her. I nod. I tell myself I can agree with a declaration of pain without being certain I agree with the declaration of its cause” (226). It appears that Jamison challenges Ma’s idea of empathy here because she is able to connect with the person and gain a better understanding of the disease without actually empathizing with them. She acknowledges their pain because the pain is real, but she doesn’t want to fully acknowledge the reasoning behind the pain because she doesn’t see it, and if she were to empathize with the person, it would almost be rude as she doesn’t fully believe the cause, herself. Almost contradictory to her thoughts earlier, Jamison challenges Bloom’s views of empathy because she wants to empathize with these people, she feels bad that she isn’t able to grasp what they are explaining, she believes empathy might be helpful so she could see the problem from their point of view. Jamison explains, “I wanted to do nice things for everyone out of a sense of preemptive guilt that I couldn’t conceptualize this disease in the same way as those who suffered from it” (238). One can see how Jamison wants to feel what they feel, in order to see the whole picture of Morgellons disease, how empathizing with the people would allow her to understand the disease in all of its facets. Here, we can also see how Jamison expands on Ma’s views, too. If Jamison were able to empathize with the people about Morgellons, she would be able to explain it to the world more, and maybe get more press coverage on the disease. If the scientists were able to empathize with the people, they wouldn’t be so quick to call them crazy, they would try to think of all of the possibilities other than the closest diagnosis.
