This article about autism and empathy

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http://seventhvoice.wordpress.com/2013/ ... -too-much/

^that should be a hyperlink

Any opinions?

This quote is from the article:

In terms of the caring aspect of empathy, a lively discussion that would seem to support Markrams’ theory appeared on the website for people with autism spectrum disorder called WrongPlanet.net, after a mother wrote to ask whether her empathetic but socially immature daughter could possibly have Asperger’s.

Didn't read the link, don't have time.


but i do know the lack of empathy tag is applied to all with AS. I don't agree with this tag.

it is not a lack of empathy, it is my unqualified view that people with AS have an inability to modulate the amount of empathy that is appropriate for a given situation, it is often too much or too little. Rarely just right.

A good test to see if any female has AS is this……If she ever says " its not what you said, it was the way you said it" then she doesn't have AS.

If the guy replies to this statement in stunned silence then there is a good chance he has AS. If she leaves and he lets her walk out without saying or doing anything then that, for him, is the diagnosis confirmed.

I tend to agree with the article, at least at first thought....

Many of us though, myself definitely, learn to block the empathy that is too strong for us to process, so that we can cope.

We are separated into groups here by those who block and those who don't.

Interesting timing for this post too, because it quite addresses the reason for the post i started a couple days back regarding disassociation/observer status being a symptom or a coping mechanism of ASD.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt245194.html

Thanks greatly for the link.

Clicking the link, it goes to "oops, page not found" message on the seventh voice site/page.
It's too bad, a friend of mine found this on FB and sent me the link (after she read the article),
but the link wasn't working when I tried it (a few days ago).
Wonder what became of the article ?

I don't agree with the idea that autistics lack empathy. Most autistics I've met are deeply empathic but have a difficult time expressing it.

As someone who spent most of my life undiagnosed, I must say that I have endured a lot of pain without any validation from others. This can make it very difficult to learn to empathise, when the lesson from others is: "your pain is not important."

Tried the link again, this time around it did work-yay!
Cool-it mentioned WP towards the end of the article.

I've enjoyed other works by the author, Maia Szalavitz
(she has a blog at Time magazine online).

Have seen this theory before, and I agree for the most part with it.
It was put in terms of "cognitive" and "affective" empathy, I believe.