Why isn't it said that neurotypicals lack empathy?

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No this post is not bashing all neurotypicals, only those who fit this description.

Many neurotypicals are shallow to the point of thinking that those who are not attractive according to them deserve to be condemned with a life of loneliness. They are even angered when another person chooses to date someone they feel doesn't match their perfect standards.
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Some neurotypicals also cannot restrain themselves from wanting to commit violence against the innocent. They are always speaking about how they wish to nuke nations such as Iran ect. and try to justify the past murders of innocent lives. According to them, if a horrific act is carried out by the police, government, or military, it's perfectly fine.

Some neurotypicals tend to bully and belittle of others unlike themselves and act as if they are being unjustly targeted when their victim strikes back. Their sense of morality is based on "might makes right"; innocents are not taken into consideration.


Many NTs are heartless, devoid of any empathy whatsoever. A child could be born deformed and live a horrible life but some neurotypicals would either laugh at it's misfortune, name call, or wish for its death.

I do not understand the question. I've heard people who are 'neurotypical' described as lacking empathy either in a particular instance, or more generally.

My point is that the psychologists believe that we (Aspies) lack empathy, even though it more strongly applies to neurotypicals in my opinion.

Perhaps you should have been clearer about your point. People with AS are not exactly known for their ability to read between lines and grasp points barely hinted at in some oblique way.

Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of empathy. A requisite for exercising empathy is comprehending someone else's state of mind. How is someone impaired in comprehending non-verbal cues not going to be impaired in empathy, when a normal level of skill in this area, includes the ability to comprehend someone's state of mind, using nothing more than non-verbal cues?

Actually, people think I read into things too much. I always read between the lines by applying logic to the situation. My impressions of what people really want tend to be right. I am a natural skeptic.

Let's get this straight. If you're defining empathy as an inability to read non-verbal cues to assess a person's state of mind, then, sure, Aspies lack empathy. But I think empathy is the wrong word here. What we lack is social intuition.

If you're defining empathy as an ability to identify with the feelings and thoughts of another person, there is nothing about being an Aspie that prevents us from empathizing. We simply do not know what another person is thinking or feeling unless they tell us *with words*. Once they tell us, most of us are quite empathetic, sometimes to a fault. This is the definition of empathy the original post uses.

I have heard psychologists who say that our ability to *express* empathy may be impaired. For myself, I have a hard time expressing empathy sometimes, not because I don't feel it, but because I feel it so deeply that I'm afraid I'll say or do the wrong thing. This indicates an overabundance of empathy in my book. Any psychologist who says we are incapable of empathy itself needs to be educated about AS.

Apparently it's listed in the DSM-V as a trait of Asperger Syndrome. Psychologists can be totally clueless. Many fail to see past their so-called credentials and refuse to analyze and examine whatever is said. Instead, they automatically assume they are experts in the field based on arguments centered on appeals to authority.

Last edited by timeisdead on 14 Dec 2008, 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get what you are talking about, timeisdead. I agree with you that the general NT population are the people that lack the ability to feel empathy. However, since the NT population is the majority, majority rules here. We are the inhuman animals of this world.

Keep the friendly and educated NT's close and say f*** to the rest.

They want me to expirence happiness about their topic of intrest, but when I try to talk about mine, I get, "Let's talk about something else. You've told me this before." I am told to "Put myself in so and so's shoes" and try ot imagine how he feels, but when I have a meltdown due to some stress or something sensory, I am told I am being imature and to stop it. Yes, NT's either lack empathy or are nature's most hypocritical creatures or both.

NTs can be brutal beyond recognition without ever thinking of the consequences. My mother took care of a man who lost his limbs due to a prank his friends played on him. He was inebriated and passed out and his so-called "friends" dropped him off on the train tracks thinking he would wake up. Turns out the train ran over his limbs and he is currently robbed of ever having the chance to walk again. Now people wonder why I'm so anti-social? If those are "friends", I would hate to see what a true enemy is.


They also believe that we can't see through their masked statements. On many occasions, I have told neurotypicals their true thoughts (often negative). In a defensive mode they have denied the accusations. Later, when they become angry or irate, they prove me right through the very statements they make.

what they lack is understanding...

No, it's not that they have less empathy than aspies. It's that they lack empathy for us so we don't see it. It's normal to have less empathy for those who are different than oneself.

I knew an NT that lacked empathy. My ex.

Oh that explains it.

Sounds like you are intending to include sociopaths, or "antisocial personality disorder" as it is named in the DSM-IV, under the heading "neurotypical". That strikes me as ... dubious categorization.

They also lack empathy for non-aspies in unfortunate circumstances. This is exactly when empathy is needed the most. They never think about what the victim will go through for the rest of his or her life.

Their numbers are so high these days that these conditions may as well fall under the same category as neurotypical, however incorrect it may seem. Sociopaths are a dime a dozen throughout high schools in the U.S.A.