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"Empathy" by Sarah Schulman

“Empathy” by Sarah Schulman
Anna O. is a lesbian who is trying to get over a past lover in New York City. Mostly a loner, she wanders the New York streets with empathy for the world. Doc, a post-Freudian therapist, which gains most of his clients by passing out business cards on the busy New York City streets. Doc also has a strict 3 session rule with all of his clients. Anna O. and Doc are eventually united when Anna finds one of Doc’s business cards and decides to seek to counsel from him. Anna is much different the Doc’s normal clients though. They cover many topics such as a Jewish funeral, the rise of AIDS, homelessness, drug-addicts, and so many more unique topics. Furthermore, Doc also obsesses over an ex-girlfriend and begins to have a connection with Anna. As their relationship builds you can’t help but wonder if Doc is willing to have a fourth session with Anna. Yet, at the end of the novel things take a dramatic turn. Doc suddenly has his ex-girlfriend appear who keeps calling him Anna. This sends the reader into a deep confusion as this lady continues to yell at Doc. Eventually, Doc quickly draws a firearm and kills his ex-girlfriend. The reader soon finds out in the next chapter this was a hallucination of what the narrator wishes he could do if his ex-girlfriend and he were to face again. The last two chapters of the book take an extremely different tone. They reveal that Anna and Doc, the two main characters of the book, are actually the same person. After meeting a woman named Dora Doc is able to realize that her covering up of being a man wasn’t working. Dora makes Anna realize she doesn’t have to be in shame for being lesbian.
I chose this text because it was on my bookshelf and it was the only book I didn’t know I owned. After reading this book, I feel like I have a better understanding of the hardships that the LGBTQ community experiences. This text is definitely not appropriate for use in a high school classroom. I would consider using this text with an adult education class. This text could be relatable to those adult learners who are interested in the LBGTQ community. This novel truly humbled me. I never had no idea of the hardships this group of people have to face.
I envision this text not being used in a secondary classroom. I can see how this text could be used for someone going through hardships in life such as a break-up. Anna shows the challenges that the LGBTQ community goes through and you can’t help but feel the empathy for both her and Doc. With an adult learner, it could be used to fuel those tough discussions on current topics related to the LGBTQ community. This could be used if a teacher had an adult learner who wanted to know more about what it’s like to live as a lesbian or gay person in the late 20th century. Lastly, this piece has some advanced language in the text. This novel could be used for those adult learners in the 11th or 12th-grade reading level. It would be an excellent piece to challenge their reading skills.
I wouldn’t ever use this text in my classroom because of the sexual content. They get descriptive with some sexual scenes that wouldn’t be appropriate for most students. This book is generally aimed at a younger adult audience. Adult learners would most likely benefit from “Empathy.” Responses to the text could be frustrating because of the last two chapters. They were extremely abrupt and ruined the flow of the story for me.

This book emphasizes on the Freudian ideas. It just so happens that Anna O. and Dora are both names of two of Freud’s cases; both suffering from hysteria. This book has a lot of symbolism in it that I found hard to understand. Reading this definitely gave me a new perspective on the lives of others. It made me more conscious of the LGBTQ community and honestly made me respect them more because of the hardships they face consistently in society. 

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