Improving empathy?

Post Reply New Topic

It's like an egocentric hack version of empathy.

You mean making just assumtions instead of really sharing the feelings? Right - but it's the first step to relate to the feelings of others. The second is to relate emotional them to a degree that you develop the same or related feelings. But it's a learning process that requires a lot of time.
The big problem for me is that most people cause me to shutdown emotions. This happens unconciously and I don't know how to control this.
For this I'm mostly correct but rarely any kind of emotional at all. Any ideas how to overcome this?

Last edited by quite an extreme on 13 Aug 2020, 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mostly assumptions based around personal circumstances, instead of understanding and predicting through relations of others.

Sharing or shared feelings is optional, or a means to an end in order to make assumptions easier to guess.

I have two approaches to practicing empathy

1- assume others would react like I would and put myself in their place
2- talk through the situation verbally, expressing my values system and analyzing how actions and situations interact with my system of values and then asking what the other person values that is different.

Approach 1 fails me a lot

A terrific publication, 'Scientific American' did the story, 'People with Autism Can Read Emotions, Feel Empathy' (LINK)

I'm glad that a scientific publication (and an excellent publication at that) did a story on empathy. Emotions e.g. empathy are those elusive concepts; which are too often difficult to put into words.

LINK: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -empathy1/

If you can tolerate it, volunteer to help people less fortunate than yourself. Autism was an unknown diagnosis when I was growing up, but I always wanted to help people. I was a big sister to a seriously disabled little girl, taught a blind child to swim, volunteered my lunch hour in high school to help "pattern" a disabled child.

Later, working as a nurse, talking care of others, working as a hospice nurse, working in poor and depressed areas. Try working every day with people who do not have enough money for rent, food, medicines - some 30 years ago. Watch little children cope with cancer, how brave they are and yet I know the probably path of their illness.

Eventually, this all gets you in the gut.