Excellent post - the relevance to ME/CFS becomes apparent at the end.
https://jcoynester.wordpress.com/20...ble-bodied-forever-and-the-limits-of-empathy/
https://jcoynester.wordpress.com/20...ble-bodied-forever-and-the-limits-of-empathy/
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Anyway, I think it's actually a very poor analysis, the gist of my reply being that this lack of empathy for ill-health is not by any means a universal experience.
Excellent post - the relevance to ME/CFS becomes apparent at the end.
https://jcoynester.wordpress.com/20...ble-bodied-forever-and-the-limits-of-empathy/
There is also the aspect of whether an illness or a person is considered to be legitimate or credible and that, for many people, will very much influence whether empathy or a constructive response is forthcoming.
I don't think he's saying that it's universal, and I think he's pretty accurate concerning the people to whom it applies. Just MO, though.
He was writing directly to us, to explain a tweet that started with "#MECFS pts ..."He wasn't just writing about us.
And now he had acquired the wisdom to admit that sometimes experienced his disdain for “weak, sick people” because he was frightened by any suggestion he could ever become that.
I really believe that patients are entitled to any emotion they find useful in coping with difficult and often intractable health problems. I certainly don’t buy into the idea that positive attitudes can somehow mysteriously directly influence physical health outcomes.
P.S. someone needs to tell James to step away from twitter - it seems the guaranteed medium for getting ones message misunderstood and falling out with everyone!
Yep, I really feel for him to be honest - he's trying to do the right thing for our community but twitter is not a good medium for debate. He must be drowning in a sea of messages on twitter and facebook. He needs to take a leaf out of Stephen Fry's book and deactivate his account for a while.That was my first reaction, too. But it's a double-edged sword, isn't it. He's done some great work bringing attention to the key issues on Twitter.
But it does seem that no one can have an impact on Twitter without eventually getting themselves into a right old mess with it.
It's about understanding all sides of the problem, empathy for and from either side leads to understanding and accord.So we should empathise with others´ lack of empathy for us? I hate to blow my own trumpet (I would much rather someone else did) but my take on empathy for ME patients made a lot more sense than this.