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Empathy Deficit

Introduction

I started this file when I read a speech given by Barack Obama. At first that was all I had here. Later I found another interesting article, so I decided to set the page up in this table format so I can add more articles in the future.

S. H. - June 2008

Here is a quote from Barack Obama

There's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us - the child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.

As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There's no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You'll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what's going in your own little circle.

Not only that - we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.

They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they're all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can't learn and won't learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else's problem to take care of.

I hope you don't listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern.

From http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060616-northwestern_un/

My comments

Empathy Deficit, Autism, Psychologists - Do psychologists lack empathy?

Here are a couple quotes from an article about empaty, autism. psychologists, psychiatrists.

Autistic individuals have a deficit in their capacity to perceive the feelings which other people experience in social situations. They also have difficulty recognizing that circumstances and events can be interpreted in a variety of ways by different individuals.

There are milder forms of autism in which cognitive functions are not impaired, and some individuals can have exceptional mathematical, musical or artistic abilities. Simon Baron-Cohen believes there are innate differences between male and female brains. In his view, female brains are predominantly wired for empathy, whereas male brains are predominantly wired for understanding and building systems. He describes autism as an extreme version of the male brain, which may explain why autism is more common among males.

Among a group of 840 students, scientists scored significantly higher in autism spectrum traits than humanities and social sciences students, confirming an earlier study which showed that autistic traits are associated with scientific skills.

Within the subgroup of science students, mathematicians, engineers, physical, and computer scientists were found to have the highest scores, followed by biologists, experimental psychologists and medical students.

These findings raise the question: "Are bio-medical scientists and experimental psychologists temperamentally well suited to the task of understanding human emotions and feelings?" (see Scientific brain linked to autism - BBC article). They have no difficulty inventing new ways to categorize and label symptoms, but have they made major breakthroughs in curing emotional ill-health? For those conditions for which antidepressants are typically prescribed the answer is "No." Likewise for schizophrenia. They haven't got to that stage yet. They're still gathering statistics.

... bio-psychiatrists assert the existence of hypothetical 'chemical imbalances' and 'genetic predispositions' for which they have no incontrovertible evidence. By and large they ignore family and societal factors. They are content to administer drugs of dubious worth to adults & children regardless of the aetiology of their symptoms. Part of the problem is that, in medical school, they are mainly taught about anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and genetics. So they try to shoehorn explanations for all types of psychological distress into those categories. Instead of a last resort, their first resort is to mask the symptoms of distress by drugging people.

A similar problem occurs in the field of psychology. An ambitious psychology student can achieve outstanding academic success despite exhibiting a degree of empathy deficit slightly below the threshold for a formal clinical diagnosis of "high functioning autism." It should come as no surprise that such individuals tend to favour cognitive therapy and mechanistic genetic hypotheses, because their cognitive faculties aren't impaired.

 

Here is the full article and a back up copy

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My personal comments

I found this quote today and was very impressed, and very surprised. These are words that I could have said myself, yet they came from a man who has a very good chance of being the next president of the world's most powerful and influential societies. I felt encouraged, inspired and affirmed by this. For a long time I have felt discouraged and depressed about the state of things in the country where I spent most of the first 40 years of my life. I don't know if Barack has ever seen my writing on empathy or anything else, but his words tell me this is a person I could actually have an intelligent conversation with. This simply amazes me. I had all but given up on the United States. I now feel hopeful for the first time in many years. And it is not just this statement which gives me hope, but other things I discovered last night, including watching videos of his wife Michelle. They both seem extraordinarily sincere, and idealistic. The first person who told me about Obama was Sarah L. She was the first person who showed me that it was possible to be highly emotionally intelligent and yet feel suicidal. After spending several hours last night learning more about Obama, I can see why her instincts led her to give him her support. I have sometimes called Sarah my EI coach. Maybe one day she will be on Obama's staff of emotional intelligence advisors. If Obama is elected, I can actually imagine such position being created in the cabinet. This would be a big step in the right direction. It is too early to tell what will happen, but for today at least, I feel encouraged and undepressed.

S. Hein
Balatonlelle, Hungary
June 6, 2008

Full backup of speech