The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

Turkle faces resistance at MIT to becoming tenured on the basis that her book The Second Self (1984) isn’t “scientific” enough because it’s based on ethnographic interviews rather than “data sets.” Turkle’s decision to publish her book with a commercial press rather than an academic one invalidates the rigor of her research in the eyes of the academic board. In addition, she is discriminated against as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

While her application for tenure is being decided, Turkle is in contact with Charlie, who tries to use her status at MIT to gain his own status in the scientific community. He prints copies of his book, which he believes proves Einstein wrong, and writes accompanying letters to members of the science faculty at MIT introducing himself as Turkle’s father. She asks him not to send them, afraid it will affect the outcome of her application. Her psychoanalyst suggests cutting contact with him to “deactivate” him, and he never sends the letters. Nonetheless, Turkle is denied tenure. She manipulates the dean into appealing the decision due to their sexist behavior. Despite knowing that she is not accepted into the culture at MIT and is treated like an “inconvenient object,” she decides to stay there because of opportunities for intellectual growth.