Empathy: Is it Possible?

The Seldom Seen Acting Company gathered once again on Friday, September 16. The question was "can one man hear another man's story, and feel it deeply enough to be able to pass it off as his own when in front of a live audience?"

In sympathizing with the ever-patient director, I thought the rehearsals must be, at the same time, the most frustrating and most rewarding experience of her week. The task is frustrating indeed for "herding cats," as Steve says, is a great description of getting our homeless community together for a group activity: interns are finishing up their laundry, the phone is a constant nuisance, guys are constantly walking in univited, and tired from a night on the sidewalk the participants sometimes fall into slumber. Nuisances, however, are a regular difficulty for any facilitator. Quite irregular however, is the necessity of neutralizing the suspiciousness of street mentality pervasive among our community. Living on the street is mankind's closest approximation of the "every man for himself" philosophy, for being homeless must truly feel like constant warefare. One must struggle for food, for shelter, for warmth; when you are not begging for a dime to ride the bus, you're fending off harassment from the police; you witness homicide; you fend off crack; you give into crack; if you're not insane yourself, you must protect yourself from all the other crazies; and you constantly deal with the psychology of being the nation's lowest class citizen. In short, one develops the defense mechanisms necessary for survival: "I must behave as though no one genuinely wants to help," because, well, most of the time it's true.

Try carting off that baggage in a matter of hours and laying the groundwork for a live performance to boot.

The difficulty of overcoming this barrier is precisely what must make the experience so rewarding for the facilitator. The key to unlocking the suspicion and gaining trust, which is so vital for cooperation, is to allow participant ownership. No homeless person, crazy or not, would waste any bit of time rehearsing for a play--surely they could spend their time finding food, shelter and job--unless, however, the play was his own. So they have created a name for themselves,"Seldom Seen," and a title for their performance,"Sleeping: It's a Wake Up Call" which involves the reproduction of powerful monologues drawn from the simplest of sources: their own experiences.

This brings us to our original question: is empathy possible? Assuming the Company will select the most powerful stories for performance, and assuming not all of the powerful storytellers are willing or able to perform, the Company is faced with the challenge of allowing one member to perform another member's story, and cultivating enough empathy so that an audience has no doubt the performer is the original storyteller.

At this point, it became personal. Presumabley the best way to help someone is to know what they are going through. So, what must I do to genuinely understand these men? Can I really know the impact it would have on my psychology without actually seeing a fourteen year dead from a gunshot to the eye? Can I possibly feel what its like to be imprisoned, falsely or not, without being behind bars myself? Can I really address racism without being discriminated against? Can I even fathom the actions I would take to score another hit or the guilt I would feel in the sober aftermath without being an addict mysef? In short, can I understand homelessness when I have a home?

To the above questions, I have no answers.