Does anyone else get fantastically upset with certain types of humor? Like I can't watch most American sitcoms at ALL, I get really anxious at the embarrassing situations that people have in them. I'm not quite sure what this is, maybe a hyper-developed sort of empathy for the characters? But its even if the characters are doing fine sometimes, it ( Read more... )

Recently I read some interesting papers about empathy and I'll post more details if folks here are interested.

Guess what? (meant sarcastically, may not come over e-mail well.) Drumroll please...despite what Simon Baron-Cohen or others say, aspies are empathetic -- at least in some ways.

( More about empathy... )

My apologies if flagging up a post on my blog is against the rules, but I just wrote a lengthy critique of Simon Baron Cohen's recent theories on empathy and evil ... it's here.

Update: Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg has launched a new website on the issue of autism and common stereotypes about empathy: Autism and Empathy: Dispelling Myths and Breaking ( Read more... )

Hello there ( Read more... )

I thought the article on Clay Marzo's (surfer on the spectrum) victory in the Quiksilver Pro Puerto Escondido was great to see, with one exception. They reiterated the common myth that Autistic people don't have empathy, instead of recognizing that (at least as far as the research and the experiences of most Autistic adults I know are concerned), ( Read more... )

I have never felt what NTs describe as empathy until recently ( Read more... )

Hello, I got into a debate with someone over on a friend's LJ and basically need autistic help here. I'm going to have to c & p large parts of the conversation so you know what I'm talking about, and then I'd be really interested to hear what people here have to say about it, and if anyone's got any links that would back up my position then I'd ( Read more... )

 It isn't so much Mark Haddon's book that annoys me. It was okay. What annoys me are all these NTs who now think they understand Asperger's simply because they've read it! I have a profile on goodreads.com and it seems every time I use the "compare books" feature I encounter another review explaining the syndrome. These reviews invariably contain ( Read more... )

 Hello all ( Read more... )

Short question, how do you feel and react if you read or here the servile (it that's the right word) generalization that we with Aspergers syndrome, don’t have empathy?

That's upsets me, to me that's the worst prejudice I have heard about AS.