Empathy

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That's how I always approached it, too (giving advice). Then I realized people don't want advice, so I tried to relate (as you put it) by telling them about situations similar or...advice again because I'm not good at not giving advice (that's the only reason why I chat about my problems. I thought I was doing it right, until I came here and realized people just want you to listen. It's completely pointless in my opinion.



That's empathy.

And frosty, you aren't a schizoid if you care about not hurting someone's feelings. I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling either. I can relate since I'm in the same boat with you (on am I schizoid/PDD-NOS), BUT...it's all just labels. I think I'm some combo, but not quite any.

I'm always getting into trouble by giving people logical, well-reasoned advice when what they are looking for empathy. I do have empathy, but I have a horrible time expressing that empathy in a socially appropriate way, my logical side wants to suppress it.

Can you explain more, Odin? I'm curious.

Well, I can "feel people's pain" in that I understand why they are feeling the way they do, but then I always want to try to help them or something similar, thus causing me to look insensitive, as if giving reasoned advice somehow causes people to think I am telling them that thier emotional pain isn't a big deal.

I dont get empathy or sympathy. I understand the concept on an intelectual level, but dont experience it

I empathize with people, animals and objects.

I'll see my kids playing with a beetle or something and feel it from the beetle's point of view.

The same goes for objects, like variables in code etc..

I guess it's not full emotional empathy, but it is feeling the same as they do - sharing an experience - putting oneself in their shoes etc..

It's not that you lack empathy, it's that most of us, those with AS/AD do. It says it right there. All of those with autism do, most with AS have trouble with it (most medical sites that I've seen say that those with AS lack it too). Obviously, the extent of damage done to the brain, the areas that allow us to feel for others and the situations they've been in but we haven't, defines how much trouble we have with it.

I don't entirely agree.

I think aspies have difficulty SHOWING empathy... not necessarily feeling it.

The other thing though is that perhaps OUR (MY) idea of empathy is different to NTs - so while I feel I am empathic, maybe from an NT point of view, I'm not.

It's known that the more autistic someone is, Kanner's compared to Asperger's for example, the greater the deficits across the board, including the lack of empathy.

This is empathy: I feel nothing for a dying baby in car crash, no good or bad, just a void. My mother for example, will feel many emotions if she witnessed the same situation. We both haven't had a child die in a car crash, so it's empathy rather than sympathy.

I'm sure there's people with Asperger's who'd feel sadness for the aforementioned child; the clinical picture says that most won't.

In Australia recently there was a baby found in a case in a pond. Obviously dead. I didn't feel anything because of how the news reported it (I think).

Yet I'm sad when ET seems to dies at the end of the movie even though;
a. I know it's a movie
b. He's not human
c. He doesn't actually die
d. I've seen it heaps of times before

So where does that leave me? Do I have empathy or not?

My mother became upset at that incident [and many, many others]; I felt and feel nothing.

Perhaps you're upset for you have an emotional connection to ET, i.e., you care for the character.

I was never very much into ET, sometimes I feel sad when watching Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck with the kids...

I think it's just that I can't get upset about things on the news because of the crap clinical way they're presented. I need the whole "story" to get into character.

It's frustrating that I can have so much empathy for fiction but hardly any for true life.

I remember all of the jokes from when Diana died, when the Shuttle blew up etc... Because I was in a position to be amused by the whole thing rather than feeling sad.

It could be because he's an alien. :)

I guess it'd be closer to sympathy if you follow the story, i.e., you're an observer who is there for the most part, you've "experienced" it; I've felt sad for characters in movies, ones that aren't human. It's interesting why we feel one, but not the other; story and the full picture may allow us a greater understanding of the events. I've never been upset over reality and its associated human/animal suffering, I've seen some death, dying and crying; I felt nothing (I knew the events however).

(It's not to say one is psychopathic, that's when one doesn't care if their actions harm others; I'd be upset if I harmed someone.)

This is interesting I always thought empathy was part of being able to identify emotional states and the reasoning behind them. While I can and I can feel sympathy I cannot place myself in someone else's shoes. I'm a film student but in my school I need to take acting for the camera which I have taken I've found it very hard and had to talk to the particular teacher and have the script adapted a little so it wasn't as far a stretch.

I am normally a very laid back guy who deals with things in private. My character in the script was very over emotional, overly open and always freaking out the only similarities between me and the character was we both had a good vocabulary. In one part the line is "What? No. Oh no... no" which I recited emotionally flatlined which caused the class to laugh especially after the line after that is "Phil's dead." I had to adapt the initial line to "What? ... I'll call you back" my teacher seems to like it better since I couldn't really understand going that emotionally overboard. I do cry to movies alot though especially the end of the LAst Samurai due to my respect for the culture and the significance of it.

Empathy is something that I am incapable of.

It's not like I want to go around killing people; but I generally just won't care if someone else makes a major mistake that screws everything up because it is their fault in the first place.