Where do you see Jamison practicing empathy, according to Zaki’s definition, by sharing in the emotions of the people with Morgellons and by trying to understand why they feel that way?

Jamison is constantly practicing empathy throughout the entire paper. She is doing her very best to live up to Thomas Huxley’s command, “and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing,” (Huxley qtd in Jamison). In addition to this she also has developed her own fears about contracting the condition or disease and starts to inspect her own fingers so as to ensure she doesn’t have it. “If you look closely enough, of course, skin is always foreign — full of bumps, botched hairs, hefty freckles, rough patches. The blue fibers are probably just stray threads from a towel, or from my sleeve, the quills not quills at all but smeared ink on the surface of the skin,” (Jamison). This is more than empathy, she has become one of the victims.

Does she succeed in both sharing and understanding?  Does she thinks that she succeeds? 

She does a very good job at keeping the reader involved in her own personal thoughts and the relatable ways that certain thoughts may scatter. Her method of sharing clearly shows her understanding for those who have become inflicted with Morgellons. From her own perspective she can only hope that she has succeeded but I believe that she has.

What’s your verdict on Morgellons disease; is it a “disease or delusion” (Jamison 223)? 

I personally, without having invested any thought in the disease or delusion believe that it is most likely, in my mind, a mental disorder. I believe that based off strictly this article that people develop these real symptoms that truly torment them based off of misperceptions.