title: A pastoral theologian's response to the case study.
abstract: This response to a case study of a long-term chaplaincy care relationship between a woman with recurrent leukemia and an experienced oncology chaplain at a comprehensive cancer center expresses a clinical attitude formed within three contexts-pastoral psychotherapy, the supervision of psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy, and pastoral theology-through which case studies are to be engaged, concurrently, in multiple ways. Illustrating this attitude, the response outlines four distinct "readings" (Ricoeur) of the case study that express different approaches: a personal engagement that a reader can feel; an empathic openness to the plausibility of the chaplain's account; a recognition of the complexity of the report and of the care as constituted of different disciplines and guilds; and an awareness of the difference and distance between a patient's experience and a caregiver's interpretation of a patient's experience.
authors.affiliation: Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. crschlau@bu.edu
authors.forename: Chris R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Schlauch
mesh_terms: D002604:Chaplaincy Service, Hospital; D002977:Clergy; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010327:Pastoral Care; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D011613:Psychotherapy; D029181:Spirituality