Tinman

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Did the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz (movie) have undiagnosed autism since the Tinman had no empathy/sympathy (aka no heart)?

That's the second time today you caught me out! I thought you were starting a thread about the recent spinoff series Tin Man.

That was a fun movie. Did they make a series out of it? Or are you talking about something else?

Sci Fi made a mini series called "Tin Man", a spin off of the Wizard of Oz. I've never been able to catch the whole thing, but it looks extremely good. Hopefully next time they repeat it I'll get to watch the whole thing.

Yeah. That's the one. Was a fun little romp. Enough clever twists to make up for some stilted acting. My daughter liked it enough to buy it on DVD.

No, I do not think so. The Tinman is consistently caring, helpful and empathetic throughout the journey, while believing he lacks "heart" - just as the Lion is brave. At the end of Chapter 16 it says Oz, left to himself, smiled to think of his success in giving the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Lion exactly what they thought they wanted. "How can I help being a humbug," he said, "when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can't be done? It was easy to make the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Woodman happy, because they imagined I could do anything. But it will take more than imagination to carry Dorothy back to Kansas, and I'm sure I don't know how it can be done." As soon as the Tinman receives his "humbug" heart of silk ("of which any man might be proud") he starts to display conspicuous emotions.

I think there are plenty of Oz's offering humbug, and plenty of Tinmen paying for it.

Or the part (in the book) where every time he accidentally steps on an ant, he stops to cry about it for a while.

The book, moreso than the movie, made it obvious that each already had what they wished for.

Little did we know at the time, Dorothy did as well

Maybe. I have some slightly alexithymic (inability to name emotion) traits with little empathy. I can listen to things that are very emotionally charged things and not feel a thing, yet other kinds of emotional input will cause me to fall apart. Empathy is really an imagined sense anyway; you can't literally feel what another person is feeling. Somewhere in the workings of the brain, nonverbal communication is read and the feelings of the other person are duplicated, giving the illusion of feeling with someone (empathy).

In the tinman's case, I would say that he had something like alexithymia and low empathy, but was still highly compassionate (a trait independant of empathy). A sense of empathy was probably created psychosomatically.

I think you maybe reading just a little to much into the movie. But the Wicked Witch of the West had PTSD, I am pretty sure.

I dunno. With green skin like that, I'm wondering what the heck was wrong with her endocrine system.