Book About Lack of Empathy

Post Reply New Topic

Well, this new book by Baron Cohen was recommended to my by Amazon the other day:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... xg&cad=rja

frankly, I´m a little worried by this! It sounds like he´s claiming the evils of the world are caused by "lack of empathy". So how is he going to rate autistic people in all this? Is this going to be more bad press? Why does he use the word "empathy" as a catch-all word to mean the ability to pick up social cues, mind read, and feel sympathy and compassion.....when they´re not all the same thing?

In fact, I read somewhere that the most successful criminals actually DO have empathy, or, the ability to mind read- (which is different from sympathy or compassion). Because actually, it takes social skills to be able to persuade someone to trust them enough to let them into their apartment, or car, or wherever they want to do their dirty deed.

In any case, I was just curious what people have to say about this.

Oops, the link I posted was not the actual link by Amazon, but the description I posted was exactly the same description as the description for the book. Just in case anyone was wondering......

I don't like the way he talks about turning things away from the idea of evil and replacing it with empathy.

First off, that's conflating empathy as used (and, most frequently, misused, and he gravely misuses it constantly) in autism research and empathy as used in discussions of sociopathy. Which he ought to know better, but I suspect he just wants to make money at this point because so much of his research is so incredibly sloppy that even i can spot it, and I'm not trained in science or research (yet scientists and researchers agree with me when I bring up the points).

Second off... it really sounds like he's turning things away from ethics (which decide what is right and wrong, good and evil, and everything in between), and into psychology (which says nothing about right and wrong). And that's a very worrying way to look at the world. Ethics are one of the most important things humanity has as a way of avoiding totally destroying itself and everything around it. We don't need to reduce ethics to psychological attributes. Just... gah, wrong.

Baron Cohen is a dumbass. That's all I have to say.

Oh jeez. Baron-Cohen has jumped the shark.

I remember putting away a bunch of those at the warehouse the other day alone with a bunch of other ASD related books.

So this book is about lack of empathy than about autistics lacking it?

"Simon Baron-Cohen: Zero Degrees of Empathy - A New Theory of Human Cruelty at The Royal Institution of Great Britain"

Oh, great -- lovely title.

I wonder if he's going to mention that most atrocities have been committed by non-autistic (or otherwise labeled) people (if for no other reason than numbers).

I think like his cousin "Borat" (Sasha), Simon B-C is good at knowing how to make a splash and get people's attention with the media.

It's funny how we're (generally) so indignant when it comes to sacrificing science on the alter of religion, yet quite happy to look the other way when it's foisted upon the altar of neurodiversity.

Neurodiversity: Probably more problematic than you realize!

A book that will help me to understand the average person a lot better. No thank you. I know that most people lack empathy.

I am not reading the subtext at all like you guys are....

"In this event he proposes a radical shift, turning the focus away from evil..."

"And fourthly, while a lack of empathy leads to mostly negative results, is it always negative?"


Sounds to me like he is trying to make it an "okay" thing to be lower on the empahty spectrum and that there is a paradigm RE evil that needs to be squashed and that this will largely be a "pro" autism book.

I think the problem is largely with the definition of empathy and the fact that it's lumping us together with sociopaths. Sociopaths lack sympathy, but are great actors. People with autism have sympathy but do not express empathy like most people do. Lacking empathy is a notion that many of us object to. I hate being told I lack empathy.

Seems to me that he is overreaching again. His extreme male brain theory was an attempt to provide an all encompassing description of autism. Now it seems like he is developing an all encompassing theory for badness. I guess I would rather see solid results and conclusions on narrowly defined and precisely researched questions rather than broad brushstrokes that in trying to explain everything end up explaining nothing.

Yeah that's a lot of my problem with it as well. I've read a lot of his work and I just don't trust the way his mind works. He comes to a conclusion and then he makes an easy way to find results that would fit his conclusions. I'm not even sure he's aware he's doing it, but it gets really obvious sometimes. I've gotten to where I don't trust anything he says about autism -- good or bad.

It seems to me there are several different types of "badness" in the world. Obviously there are some people who lack the ability to feel compassion or guilt. Sociopaths. Then there are people who do evil out of ignorance and bigotry. Only the latter has any connection to empathy. I'd say that bigotry is more a lack of empathy for groups or classes of people based on stereotypes. Mass social dynamics lead to deliberate use of empathy-blinders.

I don't really think any of this is in any way connected to autism or AS.

Yes, this is exactly how I feel about it!