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"The Empathy Exams"

• NOTE: Citations in this Lesson Plan refer to the following version of the book: Jamison, Leslie. The Empathy Exams: Essays. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014. Kindle Edition.

• The Empathy Exams is a collection of 11 essays exploring the themes of empathy, pain, voyeurism, and sentimentality.

• The narratives of these essays are related from Leslie Jamison’s first-person perspective and interweave journalistic writing with memoir.

• In the titular first essay, “The Empathy Exams,” the author describes her work as a medical actor.

• Medical actors are presented with brief scripts (10-12 pages) that detail their backstory, behavior, and symptoms.

• The actors then have “examinations” with medical students who are to go about questioning the actors regarding their circumstances.

• After each encounter, the actors then evaluate the medical students based on their actions and behavior on a checklist. Among the most important items on this checklist is Item #31 which questions if...

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