In the book "Empathy" by Sarah Schulman, the author highlights the challenges patients face when sharing personal information with their doctors. Often, when a patient discloses a truth about themselves, the doctor feels they understand them completely. This leads to a level of arrogance and over-familiarity that can result in insensitive and unwarranted suggestions from the physician.

The dynamic can become increasingly troubling as the doctor makes offensive assumptions based on limited information, which can feel as dismissive and harmful as judgments made by a stranger. This illustrates a broader issue in healthcare where empathy is lacking, and patients are seen as mere case studies rather than individuals with their own unique experiences.