compassion/pity for inanimate objects?

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I do this a lot. I do it so much, I feel bad when I open one half of a double door and the other one doesn't get opened.

I also been bad when a book goes unread for a while. I feel like it feels unappreciated.

This is really familiar Until I was 12 or so, it sometimes got out of hand. I couldn't throw away an empty water bottle one time. Until I was 6 I wouldn't even cut paper I also never threw things out, I had drawers full of junk. I still instinctively feel compassion for objects sometimes but I rarely act on it anymore.

My father was a very angry person. I always felt sorry for our car when he yelled at it. I was an only child and the car was like a sibling.

This really is terribly interesting, Is this an Aspie trait I wonder?

dunno. definitely got this. but i got major codependency and PTSD issues too so who knows. could just be a matter of projection/lack of theory of mind of my own loneliness, abandonment, sadness, desire to be useful, etc. onto an object. or it could be recognition that all things are conscious in their own way and a desire to honor the universe which i think this world could use a hell of a lot more use from. so i plan to continue the practice to whatever extent it's not actively causing problems in my life.

There is a pretty good Godley Creme song about pitying inanimate objects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-YiM2vZuo

I do this all the time, especially in terms of needing to treat objects fairly in relation to each other. I feel guilty for example, if one vitamin pill too many falls out of the bottle and I need to put one back. I will always put the second one back to be fair to the first one, but I also feel bad imagining the second one getting excited thinking it was up next, and then just getting chucked back in. Sometimes I will keep the second one out and place it on the lid so it is guaranteed to be the next one consumed by me.

Whenever other people happen to observe this or other compassionate-like behaviour towards inanimate objects, they tend to laugh as if I am putting on a silly act for their entertainment, but I'm actually not.

Yes.

I get attached to inanimate objects as though they are little people though.

I am the same with some cuddly toys I have. I have two stuffed penguins. If I cuddle one and see the other I feel guilty for not giving the other one a cuddle too...so then I end up having to cuddle both of them.

I am aware they are just stuffed toys, but awwwww.

Their names are George and Bobble.

You can meet them both here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQMOJLaSXaY

I also feel sad for this piece of tapestry as I have never yet finished it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6venCg8ZC8

I think stuff is alive in it's own way. I have things I would conceder magic items because they have a certain life to them.

I theorize aspie-compassion for inanimate objects is due to our social nature - we are not pack-animals like NTs, but territory-animals. Our territory (home etc.) probably matters more to us than it does for most other people, and inanimate objects constitute our territory. In our mind, out life does not depend on some pack as it does for NTs, but on our territory and our ability/right to be independent creatures in that territory.

yes. this 'guy' is my avatar-ish now

"he" is in my bookbags etc

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A year and a half ago, I happened to develop a "rapport" with one leaf on a tree along a path I always walk for exercise. As I walk along, I like to reach out and touch objects around me, both for that Aspie trait of either abhorring/craving touch as well as for the upper body exercise value that it brings (don't laugh... I have overexerted my left deltoid muscle doing this). Usually the objects I touch are leaves hanging down from low branches on trees around me that I feel are within my reach. During the Spring of 2012 there was one low hanging leaf on a low tree branch that had become worm eaten in the middle, creating a two forked leaf, so I got into the habit of reaching up and touching each half of the fork with two forked fingers as I passed by. Over time I watched the life of this leaf and came to feel that I had almost gotten to know it personally. That Summer and Fall, when the leaves began to deteriorate, I watched with apprehension as the leaves around it fell. When my leaf also fell, I almost felt a sense of grief over its loss. One night in August of that Summer, I happened to have a camera with me as I walked and took a photo of my leaf in an advancing state of decay. The link to that pic follows. The red line shows that leaf's shape during most of the earlier part of that Spring/Summer and the blue line shows what it probably looked like before the worms got to it. My leaf is also still on Google Street View as of right now with an image date of May 2012. That link follows also. It is the leaf with the hole in it.

http://oi44.tinypic.com/mlmpt4.jpg

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=3 ... 10.79&z=18

As for inanimate objects, as a 4 y/o child I had a toy dog named Saucy that I stole from my 2 y/o sister. I always slept with and kept that toy dog close to me until the time when I went away to college. I still have that dog packed away in a suitcase to this very day. I developed a connection with a small book about electricity that I had during my childhood days and still have that book somewhere. That book probably influenced my path of life into the field of engineering. I probably also have many other examples of connections to inanimate objects that do not immediately come to mind. Oh, and there is also the case of the tiny Swiss travel alarm clock my mom gave me that I used during my college days... I named it Tinkerbell. Objects are certainly more reliable and trustworthy than people.

Objects do not shovel ego in your face like people do.
Objects do not demand respect, so they earn my everlasting respect.
Objects do not value prestige, honor, wealth or integrity.
Objects do not snub other people, so they make the best friends (aside from the family dog).
Objects do not hide from people. They always welcome you with open arms.
Objects are not pretentious.
Objects do not deceive.
Objects do not try to hurt people's feelings.
Objects do not try to dominate people.
Objects do not gossip.
Objects do not voice opinion.
Objects do not judge other people.
Objects do not act like they are special.
Objects do not hide behind cellphones.
Objects do not try to cheat others.
Objects do not try to interfere with the lives of others.
Objects are not back-stabbers.

(And I'm just getting started with this list... Anybody care to add a few more)?

I mourned the death of my car, felt very sad for it. And I totally identify with the feelings people describe here of trying to comfort and be fair to inanimate objects.

One of my earliest memories was when I was five years old, we were about to move house in the Toronto area - and I had this Sesame Street Playhouse set that I got for my 5th birthday some months ago. Well I remember I was frustrated about something, and I whipped one of the plastic characters against the wall or the floor (can't recall which, doesn't matter!) and it chipped, which I wasn't totally expecting...and I cried and cried and wailed!! ! I wanted him to be repaired but I couldn't find the chip. My parents told me they'd look for it and they'd fix him, which I can't remember if they did or not...probably not. I imagine that despite their attempts to console their sobbing 5-year-old son that they would have been laughing hysterically about it amongst themselves when I was out of range.


As for whether that keyed them in as to the possibility of their son being mentally "off" or developmentally delayed...probably, but I guess they didn't take it too seriously because it was another 3 years before I saw a child psychiatrist. This was the early 1980s though, so he of course had little to no clue.

Yes. That's why I have problems throwing anything away.

At work, I ensure my machines are perfectly clean and well cared for, not because they function better, but because the other workers don't care about them and as weird as it sounds, I have a "bond" with them. I am troubled when someone doesn't maintain them or crashes them - then has the nerve to call the poor machine a piece of s*- when the human was at fault, usw. I mentally talk to them and try to "comfort" them, usw.