The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

Turkle claims that objects can inspire deep personal reflection and change. “Evocative objects” are ordinary objects with special meaning that evoke thought and feeling. This concept is central to the way Turkle interprets and analyzes events and relationships throughout the memoir. For example, she imagines her future self as a serious academic through the symbolic purchase of the designer “Speedy” travel bag. In buying the bag, Turkle creates an identity of “what a woman of substance would carry as she traveled the world” (173). Turkle takes an academic interest in the way that people impart many ordinary objects with potent meanings. She edits three books of essays based on an assignment she invents, which asks students to reflect on special childhood objects that led them to science. She also ruminates on objects to reflect on her own past, noting that this is a common technique used by memoirists to access deeply felt moments from their lives.

The memoir weaves Turkle’s personal and academic narratives, each portraying “evocative objects” through different lenses. In her personal narrative, Turkle examines her own process of mourning and its relation to “object-relations theorists” such as Claude-Lévi Strauss.