Discussion Board Posts

A Response to "Out Patients"

“Out Patients” by Elise Wu takes a deep dive into the world of the author, who suffers from Factitious Disorder, which causes her to mentally and physically make up or imagine symptoms of an illness for the purpose of receiving more attention from family and peers. In my own layman’s terms, Elise suffers from herself. The further she dove deeper into her experience the further it became clear that she has turned against herself, going through tremendous pain to receive special attention sympathy from others. Of course, her diagnosing of FD is not her fault, however her guilt of finding out what she was really doing is more ironic than sympathetic. By knowing the reason behind her unexplainable symptoms, her constant visits to different ERs, and her constant fits of pain she has managed to induce upon herself, she has led herself into a path of true pain, pain that is not just consciously created, but is true pain felt both mentally and physically – guilt. Granted at the time of her discovery about FD, she has already recovered from her acts of imaginative pain. However, she now has a weight on her shoulders that can’t be easily lifted. She now has to go through the process of “coming out” as an FDer. She thinks about her family, her doctors that “treated” her, and her friends. Upon her study of Factitious Disorder she uncovers threads about dealing with FD, but not from the actors of the illness, but from the audience. Their responses, mostly filled with anger and upset individuals who can’t stand the fact they have been deceived by those who are close to them. However, Elise also finds a thread about dealing with FD, this time, written by the actors. I believe her intuition led her to the right path, as she calls her therapist to finally “come out” with her previous cases of FD. Her decision, albeit brave and smart, still poses an ironic tone as she worried about what her therapist would think of her, and her constant questioning of his tone of voice led me to believe that no matter how long she has been recovered from FD, she is still looking for the very thing that led her into four different ER rooms with worrying family members and hard-working doctors – sympathy.

A Response to Zollo
After reading Rick Zollo’s “Friday Night at Iowa 80”, what intrigued me the most was his pure appreciation for his study of the trucker life. His humble demeanor towards truckers even though he was a “four-wheeler”. Zollo was not only able to infiltrate the community but also appear as part of it. His welcoming attitude made questioning truckers easier, even though some were wary of Zollo at first, however, he understood it himself that he knew he was somewhere where he didn’t belong. Rick Zollo has compiled a study worthy of reading and studying upon further. What surprised me however, was the ease that Zollo had with having conversations with people he didn’t know. He was able to create images without taking any pictures of the truckers’ approachability. Although there were a few who were quite suspicious about Zollo’s purpose and whereabouts, he was still able to ease them with conversation and have them open up more. Zollo’s “Friday Night at Iowa 80” has turned what others would call a regular, labor-heavy career, into an understanding of it’s community and it’s people. A higher understanding of the work that truckers perform and the work that others perform to keep truckers feel welcome and de stressed. Zollo’s extravagant use of imagery had created not just a good read, but a mini-documentary inside the head of any reader.

 

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