An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

Respondent: Not for my sister she has always managed to get everyone doing things forher throughout her life. She has never actually done very much for herself or anyone else.This respondent‟s perception and understanding of suffering is unclear. She acedgessuffering as physical pain, yet although her sister complains of a physical illness, this isregarded as malingering, in the sense of Asher (2002) and a means of avoiding caring foranother person. The respondent views the parents of a child or a young person who dies orsomeone who has breast cancer as suffering, yet her sister, who has many illnesses, doesnot appear to have that right to suffer. It is possible that this respondent is suffering for herfamily and her way of dealing with her denial or misunderstanding of suffering is toproject this onto her sister as not suffering.One person can share another person‟s suffering by empathizing with them, because theyhave experienced a similar situation or are actually sharing the situation with them. Thesuffering of one family member radiates to other family members in varying degrees; yetthis does not appear to be happening in this scenario.This respondent has unresolved feelings about suffering; her views expressed thesefeelings in more than one way. She describes sufferers as those with a physical conditionsuch as a heart condition in a young person or someone with breast cancer whilst alsomentioning „the parents of young people who die.‟ The respondent gave an example ofsomeone who has suffered but is now „loo ng well‟ but also ac dged that thisperson will continue to suffer as there are other physical ailments.She also thinks that not everyone suffers and although her sister has lots of ailments, she is190