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The whole concept of psychopathy depends on the premise that normal humans act with empathy towards each other, which is laughably false.

by mjfl 8y ago

felix_nagaand 8y ago
I think this is a bit more nuanced. Humans rationalize ways to absolve themselves of feeling empathy for the sufferings of others. This is not an innate human behavior. (At least ive seen no anecdotal or published evidence of such.) what I have seen is people being taught to dehumanize others, usually following percieved wrongs (see hatfields v mccoys). Look at the way homeless people are treated. They need to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop being mentally ill physically disabled addicts and get one of those impossible to live on jobs pushing carts at whole foods for minimum wage so we can stop being inconvenienced by their poverty and suffering on our way to our overpaid jobs or when we go shopping or out on the town. It's fascinating to juxtapose how children perceive the homeless versus how the media portrays them: Children: why is that person so dirty? Why do they ask for money and food? Why do they hurt? Why are they talking to the air? Media: https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launches-no-homeless-shelter-party/ https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launche... https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight-for-the-homeless https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight... (I cherry picked two articles from google news after searching "homeless")
slv77 8y ago
Oxytocin fosters empathy towards people in the same in-group and reduces empathy for those outside the in-group. Oxytocin is the reason that a mob can be moved to avenge an injustice which requires both empathy and callousness towards another persons suffering at the same time. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relationship/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relat... Even feeling empathy for someone in pain doesn’t naturally lead to compassion. Empathy is just the ability to mirror someone else’s emotions and is a neurotypical response. If your happy, I’m happy. If you hurt, I hurt. If I’m hurting because you hurt my natural response is to stop my pain. In some cases that mirrored pain can result in acts of compassion but can also result in lashing out, victim blaming or fleeing. These are all normal responses for someone feeling pain. Empathy is a “normal” response but compassion is a choice. Few people have the emotional regulation skills and patience to see someone in pain, feel their pain and sit with them in their pain.

The whole concept of psychopathy depends on the premise that normal humans act with empathy towards each other, which is laughably false.

by mjfl 8y ago

The whole concept of psychopathy depends on the premise that normal humans act with empathy towards each other, which is laughably false.

felix_nagaand 8y ago

I think this is a bit more nuanced. Humans rationalize ways to absolve themselves of feeling empathy for the sufferings of others. This is not an innate human behavior. (At least ive seen no anecdotal or published evidence of such.) what I have seen is people being taught to dehumanize others, usually following percieved wrongs (see hatfields v mccoys). Look at the way homeless people are treated. They need to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop being mentally ill physically disabled addicts and get one of those impossible to live on jobs pushing carts at whole foods for minimum wage so we can stop being inconvenienced by their poverty and suffering on our way to our overpaid jobs or when we go shopping or out on the town. It's fascinating to juxtapose how children perceive the homeless versus how the media portrays them: Children: why is that person so dirty? Why do they ask for money and food? Why do they hurt? Why are they talking to the air? Media: https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launches-no-homeless-shelter-party/ https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launche... https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight-for-the-homeless https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight... (I cherry picked two articles from google news after searching "homeless")

slv77 8y ago

Oxytocin fosters empathy towards people in the same in-group and reduces empathy for those outside the in-group. Oxytocin is the reason that a mob can be moved to avenge an injustice which requires both empathy and callousness towards another persons suffering at the same time. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relationship/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relat... Even feeling empathy for someone in pain doesn’t naturally lead to compassion. Empathy is just the ability to mirror someone else’s emotions and is a neurotypical response. If your happy, I’m happy. If you hurt, I hurt. If I’m hurting because you hurt my natural response is to stop my pain. In some cases that mirrored pain can result in acts of compassion but can also result in lashing out, victim blaming or fleeing. These are all normal responses for someone feeling pain. Empathy is a “normal” response but compassion is a choice. Few people have the emotional regulation skills and patience to see someone in pain, feel their pain and sit with them in their pain.