Syed Shataj Hosain

Writing For Social Science

Professor Shamecca A. Harris

Reading Response #1

21th March, 2020.

                   The essay “Out Patients” by Elise Wu is a patient of Factitious Disorder. In the essay, Elise Wu shows her point of view on the Factitious Disorder also reveals the experience of the disorder she experienced. There is an extraordinary amount of worry that comes along with having Factitious Disorder. The fear that one’s cherished ones will abandon them, that they will no longer be cared for, also if it gets worse they might have to seek medical help. Wu was also one of them who exaggerated the symptoms of being sick so that the doctor can trust them and give the treatment. Wu also did not tell her therapist about having the disorder. She was trying to portray the Factitious Disorder over the internet and also she did some research online about the patients, their family members, and also about their doctors. She found out there was an online community that was a visual discussion group for people who are interested in Factitious Disorder. She was constantly checking archive posts, taking notes of time and dates for the posts. Wu created a verbal portrait by keeping track of the people who posted comments, also she took notes from that. Wu used other sources offline to triangulate the data she gathered from the other Factitious Disorder websites. She also kept her name secret because she only wanted to learn about the Factitious Disorder and did not want to expose any of the people who treated her or were there when she was facing the disorder. Wu uses the language “coming out” to show the people that she faked her illness. The footnotes were very useful in Wu’s text because the readers can easily get the idea of what she was talking about instead of searching the things online. Also, it protects the information and gives credibility to the data that were collected. Wu does a remarkable job reflecting on her personal thoughts and feelings and sharing them with others who also suffer from the same disorder-which will help them to understand the things she faced because of the Factitious Disorder.

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