Elements of Empathy

[chaoticidealism]

I think Simon Baron-Cohen's "cognitive/affective" empathy model is wrong and leaves out important parts of the perspective of an autistic person trying to observe an NT's experience of the world.

In reality, there are not two, but four elements to empathy.

Comments

another thought

[anonymous]

One more thought: I have a non-autistic friend (not quite NT) who'd flunk this test. She's blind. If you showed her a picture of some atrocity, it would be the same as if you showed her a blurry, red-and flesh-colored reproduction of a Matisse. She doesn't mirror folk well as she doesn't see well enough to do so.

Yet she's extremely compassionate. She's dedicated her life to helping people. The problems immigrants and people without healthcare face can move her to tears. When her friends are happy, she can get so excited, she babbles. Yet without aural input, she'd totally flunk this test

Re: another thought

[anonymous]

Good point. I think the primary thing for NTs is to imagine themselves in the other person's shoes. As most NTs are very reliant on visual cues, at least for sensitive NTs, to see suffering is to feel it.