Empathy

Empathy, tolerable. Sympathy, however?

madjoe wrote:my cold empathy is high
my warm empathy is low

how do you all think empthy is related to ingroup preferance (and things like racism groupthink etc)

everything is a double edge sword
empathy is not a good thing

yes....i can see how empathy can be a double edged sword

i agree its good to question things like this ...things that are normally taken for granted in the dominant ideology, but which are, in fact, up for debate. such as why empathy is good as opposed to bad.

that's why i've enjoyed these threads on empathy fwiw

as for in group preference.... i'd be interested on your thoughts on it

Okay.
Have a nice day!

I don't think I can really empathize. On another forum people said it may have to do with the fact that I barely know how I'm feeling. Another thing is not much "bad" has happened to me, so I can't relate to how others may feel because of it. I don't think I'm a narcissist or anything. I just don't think I ever learned how to. I definitely want to be able to.

I feel empathy for people I understand. It's like my cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are directly connected, without one, there isn't the other. When I can't understand someone, anything "nice" I might do is from the point of simply trying to do the right thing, but not because I actually feel empathy for the person. On top of that, when I do feel empathy for someone, I tend to feel it too much, because it's reminding me of my own similar experiences (hence why I am able to have the cognitive empathy); this can lead to me being rather aggressive in defense of people, sometimes to an inappropriate extent.

mostlyghostly wrote:I feel empathy for people I understand. It's like my cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are directly connected, without one, there isn't the other. When I can't understand someone, anything "nice" I might do is from the point of simply trying to do the right thing, but not because I actually feel empathy for the person. On top of that, when I do feel empathy for someone, I tend to feel it too much, because it's reminding me of my own similar experiences (hence why I am able to have the cognitive empathy); this can lead to me being rather aggressive in defense of people, sometimes to an inappropriate extent.

I can relate. I've posted about this in the past, I believe. It's as if I'm identifying with the person being hurt so to speak, and I can become quite angry and aggressive defending that person.

Growing up and still most of the time these days, I'm totally unempathetic interally, but externally I can 'act' like I care and have acted like I care for the most part. Why? Because acting 'right' is the right thing to do. I don't get a nice little rush for helping someone out.

The past few years the numbness defense mechanism has been breaking off and this past month I have found myself experiencing crazy emotional empathy to the point that I don't even want to watch most tv shows for the emotions I am being put into feeling.

A key part of who I am is someone who wants to be able to understand everyone's perspective, not just rationally, but be able to fully empathize with them. I guess I am managing to work towards that goal. It is incredibly painful however. It's like my emotions are being unlocked; too bad they seem to overwhelmingly be negative ones.