Blog Post #3
Devil’s Bait a story written by Leslie Jamison about a disease ,Morgellon’s that to this day may or may not even be real. Jamison takes her research to the extreme, she come in contact with several different people that have this disease and she takes extensive amounts of time in figuring out if the bugs, the larva and flesh is real or just a delustion. Jamison takes the idea of empathy to an own new level in my opinion. Empathy by definition is the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else. I do agree that Jamison pores her findings into how these people felt, and tried everything to make herself feel the pain that they were experiencing, to the point that Jamison gets the mystery disease after telling her friends she would. I find that Jamison’s way of showing empathy was an alternate way of showing because not only did she never find the answer to this disease but it controlled her life, she did everything she could to figure out the disease, it made her think she had the disease. Now I do agree that surgeons and doctors need to take extensive notes and research different symptoms of patients, they might even spend more time on a certain disease but they still always make time for theirselves, their friends and family. That was the difference between the level of empathy that Jamison shows in Devil’s Bait and the definition of empathy that other authors, Paul Bloom and Yo-Yo Ma define. Even Bloom and Ma don’t have the exact definition of empathy but they both still have the silver lining of that empathy is when you put yourself in ones shoes. Bloom even states that empathy is a positive characteristic that can change a persons life, “My beef is with empathy in particular, with its role in decision making. Empathy has certain design features that do make it positive in certain restricted circumstances. If you and I are the only people on earth and you’re in pain and I can help you and make your pain go away, and I feel empathy toward you and so I make your life better, empathy has done something good.” (Bloom). Where the level of empathy that Jamison has for her participants overgrows her positive outlook on them. Jamison writes “It actually gives me an odd thrill. Maybe some part of me wants to find something. I could be my own proof.” (Jamison 234). I agree that empathy is feel emotional towards another person in the situation on pain, sadness or sorrow but not to the point that Jamison gives herself the deadly disease. That is the point why the level of empathy that Jamison has is another, alternative example of the word empathy.
