I have trouble with empathy as an emotion, but I am gaining a grasp on it intellectually (I know when I should feel empathy). Books have helped enormously. A year and a half ago I read Night and had an epiphany of sorts- I understood that caring for others, in large or small situations, is important. I felt bad that Elie Wiesel's father died of dysentery in Buchenwald, and I understood that not feeling bad about this would be quite abnormal.
I feel empathy readily for my mother and people in books, see, but I tend to lose it around other, breathing humans. Sometimes I just do not have the energy to care about people's issues. I grow especially weary of people's love problems. However, I am A LOT better about this than I used to be.
People who have struggles with empathy might find Holocaust literature very helpful.
These books contain valuable emotional engagement and enough historical trivia to keep an aspie interested.
29 Nov 2007, 10:03 pm
