Patients have long complained that their doctors don't really listen to them. A new emerging discipline, Narrative Medicine, seeks to correct this problem by teaching both medical students and doctors the value of empathy and through the use of literature how to listen to, analyze, and reconstruct patient narratives. Although Rebecca Elizabeth Garden and Rita Charon agree on many aspects of narrative medicine, Garden tends to be more critical and points out more flaws in her work entitled "The Problem of Empathy: Medicine and the Humanities", while Charon cites the numerous advantages of narrative medicine. Medicine in “Narrative Medicine: Honoring Stories of Illness”. While narrative medicine is useful because it allows doctors to develop empathy, it is also necessary to realize the many potential pitfalls and complications that come with it. In the medical community there seems to be a divide between disease-centered care and patient-centered care. Both Charon and Garden readily recognize this. Charon explains how, although doctors may boast of their “impressive technical advancement” and “ability to eradicate once-fatal infections,” they often lack the ability to recognize their patients' pain and extend empathy (3). Charon further adds that “medicine practiced without a genuine and compelling awareness of what patients go through [empathy] may achieve its technical goals, but it is empty medicine, or, at best, half medicine” ( 5). Doctors often fail to remember that their patients are more than just a person with cancer or a congenital heart defect: they are human beings, a complete person with dreams, aspirations and fears. According to Caronte, “scientifically competent medicine alone cannot help a patient deal with... half of paper... opinion of others that is too empathetic. After tirelessly arguing with an insurance company on the phone, Dr. Schiff handed a desperate patient the $3 she needed for her pain pills. This isn't Dr. Schiff's first act of kindness. His "past infractions include helping patients find work, giving them a job himself, offering them a ride home, extending the occasional dinner invitation, and, yes, once delivering a computer." Dr. Schiff believes he should not cross the border since Dr. Seldin's borders contain only "technical tasks." Dr. Schiff draws his boundaries so he can help his patient's health by helping the patient as a whole. While Caronte wholeheartedly supports Narrative Medicine and narrative knowledge as a means to radical change in medical practice, Garden takes a few steps back to objectively evaluate the issue. The garden dates back to the 18th century