As the group who decided to use the article on Morgellons disease as their inspiration for the research paper arose the question: In the context of mental or physical illness, is it possible for an outsider free of the illness to fully empathize with the victim, or just sympathize with them? If not, what factors limit an outsider’s ability to empathize with them? To address this question two sources have been identified for reference, Empathic Foundations of Clinical Knowledge by Nancy Nyquist Potter and The Challenge of Morgellons Disease by Caroline S. Koblenzer MD. The first, takes the perspective of someone with a philisopical background, the second, a physician who deals with mentally ill patients.

Within Empathic Foundations of Clinical Knowledge Potter goes into depth about how empathy is a combination of many different concepts. Specifically, focusing on clinicians needing empathy to be able to effectively treat their patients. Potter goes through the processes of how one is able to attain empathy and describes the difficulties of having empathy for a person who one cannot fully understand due their condition, specifically their mental condition, that they are in. She elaborates on a concept called “world traveling”, an idea of Iris Murdoch, in which the subject trying to empathize towards another person must place themselves within the other person’s world; the subject needs to be open to experiencing the other person’s world and everything that comes with it. Potter also touches on the fact that in order for the clinician to be effective in their treatment they have to disassociate the patient from the disease; the patient has to be, in their mind, separate from the disease. The idea that the clinician needs to be open to world traveling and needs to be able to separate the patient from the disease within their mind allows the clinician to have empathy for the patient they are treating. Potter does not specifically state if the extent of the empathy formed is effective enough to give the necessary treatment provided. However, he does touch on the fact that the empathy that would be the best is actually unattainable because although one can know all of the facts of a person, if they are not that person, they will never actually know what that person is going through. Overall, Potter comments on the way empathy should be attained for patient’s clinicians have a hard time understanding, specifically referring to mentally ill patients. In the end Potter is uncertain if even the empathy described is effective enough to provide the necessary treatment for the patient, but she is certain that treatment without this empathy is ineffective.

The Challenge of Morgellons Disease written by Dr. Caroline S. Koblenzer presents a short, but detailed description of Morgellons disease and an effective approach to treatment of the disease for patients who suffer from it. Dr. Koblenzer describes Morgellons disease and the sensations the patients feel. She goes further to state that there are a more affected patient population who feel the need to know what is going on and they themselves dive deeper into the mystery of what is protruding out of their skin. Dr. Koblenzer proposes the idea that in order to treat Morgellons patients effectively one should treat the patients with treatments for the skin, but also treat the underlying psychological cause of the disease. Dr. Koblenzer argues that one of the crucial treatments for these patients is to treat them in a way that such that they feel that what they tell the doctor is being received; the patient should not feel “brushed off” by the doctor. Overall, Dr. Koblenzer comes to the conclusion that in order to effectively treat patients with Morgellons disease one needs to be able to treat them in a way that they feel recognized as well as understand that the condition for them is their reality. In essence, the physician needs to be able to empathize with them, or at least make the patient believe that they are, whether or not it is possible to empathize with a mentally ill patient, like a Morgellons patient, is what will be discussed in the formal paper addressing the question proposed earlier.

Works Cited:

Koblenzer, Caroline S. “The Challenge of Morgellons Disease.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, vol. 55, no. 5, 1 Nov 2006, pp. 920-922. Science Direct, PlumX.

Potter, Nancy Nyquist. “Empathic Foundations of Clinical Knowledge.” Oxford Handbooks Online, May 2013, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199579563.013.0021.