What is Digg?229 Comments
- Waskonator, on 12/27/2007, -1/+141This problem doesn't affect me, so I don't care.
- GRTWHT, on 12/27/2007, -10/+78A nice 'clinical' sounding way of describing the most basic problem of US society: most people don't give a crap about anyone but themselves.
I would rather describe this behavior with one word: SELFISH.
The truly sad part of this is that it gets more common every day and will probably be our ultimate downfall. - MikeFallopian, on 12/27/2007, -8/+53"Empathy is what you feel when you enter the internal world of another person"
Funny, I always thought that was called sex. - implied, on 12/27/2007, -9/+50i'll probably get dugg down for this, but I think alot has to do with day care. Children are being shipped off for more and more hours per day and not developing loving relationships with their parents. The workers at these day cares can only provide so much "love" for children that are not their own, and therefore the kids grow up with an altered family life.. Just a thought...
- JasonCox, on 12/27/2007, -4/+37I'm Deanna Troi and I approve this message.
- sonnybobiche, on 12/27/2007, -3/+33EDD/Antisocial Personality Disorder is essentially psychopathy or sociopathy. If you ever wondered how it's possible for someone to be an assassin or serial killer, this is it.
- inactive, on 12/27/2007, -3/+33"-- empathy is what you feel when you enter the internal world of another person. Without abandoning your own perspective, you experience the other's emotions, conflicts or aspirations. That kind of connection builds healthy relationships -- an essential part of mental health....By focusing on developing empathy, you can deepen your understanding and acceptance of how and why people do what they do and you can build respect for others. This doesn't mean that you are whitewashing the differences you have with other people or letting them walk over you. Rather, empathy gives you a stronger, wiser base for resolving conflicts and trumps self-centered, knee-jerk reactions to surface differences." (from the article)
- EatingPie, on 12/27/2007, -9/+38In "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," empathy is what differentiated human beings from androids. Bladerunner references this with the Voigt Kampf test, and the androids show no empathy or remorse until Roy's final act.
PKD Rest in Peace.
-Pie - sonnybobiche, on 12/27/2007, -1/+28Actually, you are more right than you know. A politically incorrect fact: psychopathy/sociopathy/EDD is VERY strongly correlated with absence of the father in the household (but oddly not the mother) during formative years.
- page2, on 01/17/2008, -2/+26I know exactly how those people feel.
- reuscel, on 12/27/2007, -5/+27Can't people just be selfish ***** without having a "disorder" attached to it? It sounds like it gives the Trumps, Cheneys and Bushes of the world a convenient excuse for being heartless douches.
I can just see this scene unfolding on a city street.
"Spare some change, sir?"
"Sorry, I have EDD."
"Oh, sorry to bug you sir. Carry on." - giddytonk, on 12/27/2007, -9/+25I wonder how many Republicans have this disorder.
- superal1394, on 12/27/2007, -2/+16they go hand in had. Households where the father is absent usually send kids to daycare.
- djbon2112, on 12/27/2007, -0/+13At least for an assassin, you're correct.
- hobophobe, on 12/27/2007, -0/+13The notion that these people are not able to feel the pain of others is absurd. That condition is very, very rare. Instead what this doctor is describing is a coping mechanism that individuals tend to acquire towards others because they have already imposed the same barriers upon themselves.
That man who won't feel his wife's distress at having too much responsibility already burdens himself with not feeling his own needs correctly. He compensates for his lack of proper self-care by his 'sports' and 'vegging.'
Similarly, the guy who expressed no desire to tackle global warming feels inadequate and powerless over it. Rather than making the effort he, quite naturally, copes by rationalizing as a simple matter, his own mortality. He has woven his life into a fiction where upon his death nothing that is currently real continues to exist (this is known as solipsism).
And the woman who supposedly thinks all Muslims are terrorists? I have no doubt that she is continuously skeptical of anyone's motives. She has abandonment issues that have caused her to be mistrustful of even her most intimate friends and family. But it wasn't her parents that abandoned her. She abandoned herself. Rather than standing up for herself, she chose to follow a Randian path of selfishness.
More often than not peoples' lack of empathy is attributable to their own psychological issues and not some generic disorder. Over the course of their lives they have sacrificed their own feelings too often to empathize with themselves. It's no wonder they can't do so with others.
But there is a cure. They can start to empathize with themselves. They can look back at the choices they made that led them to where they are and understand why those decisions were so harmful to them, how and why they shut themselves down.
And through that process of learning to accept their past and make peace with their earlier selves, they can gain understanding and empathy for others.
Of course, they have to want to take that step. The fact that they are seeing a psychotherapist certainly speaks of their wish to change. Having them explicate a character from a film or novel may also be a good route to opening them up to empathy. - deathlip, on 12/27/2007, -1/+12I first experienced empathy when I first did mdma.
- copprman, on 12/27/2007, -2/+14One word: Monkeysphere
- ZenMojo, on 12/27/2007, -1/+13EDD is sociopathy. Unfortunately, it's not politically correct to call people sociopaths to their face (not that it stops me), so we have to come up with new terms for public discussion.
- notthemama, on 12/27/2007, -1/+13I think *someone's* got a bad case of the Thursdays!
- Sererena, on 12/27/2007, -0/+11I'd say it's more Western society, First World countries in general that have this problem, not just the US....
Actually no... scratch that... the world is full of selfish people, it's definitely NOT limited to a single country. It's probably the leading cause of most, if not all of the world's ills. - Destardi, on 12/27/2007, -0/+11Exhibit 1 - jxhndxe would be a perfect example of the kind of person this article describes.
- inactive, on 12/27/2007, -3/+14I wonder if we give monetarily so we don't have to do it physically?
- BOFH2, on 12/27/2007, -0/+11so this is due to daycare or absent fathers?
- inactive, on 12/27/2007, -1/+11I like how everything is a "disorder" , so you don't like or care for people, that means you have a disorder? Could it be that most people don't care for you, so over time you pick up those traits and learn to be the same way?
- lyssword, on 12/27/2007, -1/+11I hate *****. I hate people who "don't give a *****" about anyone but in fact try to make other people's lives miserable. I view them as kids who have never got to use more of their brain than what they had to use when they were 12.
- ZenMojo, on 12/27/2007, -0/+10EDD is a polite way of saying "You're a sociopath." It's not that a new term was needed to describe it, it's just that the old term had negative connotations (although this doesn't remove the negativity, it just disguises it).
- Envark, on 12/27/2007, -5/+14"...and the Earth would be much better off without us."
Without us, there would be no one to determine whether or not the Earth was better off. - Pissoff, on 12/27/2007, -2/+11Many suffer from Intrawebtardationocosis, they simply have to respond to intelligent comments with garbage.
There is medication available, but it does not stop the spread of herpes and it may give you diarrhea. - 5xSTUN, on 12/27/2007, -3/+11Not only are we lacking empathy, there are active campaigns against it. Conservative pundits have been hammering home their medieval philosophy that anyone not born into wealth and privilege isn't worth giving a damn about.
- dungbeetle, on 12/27/2007, -3/+11How about having too much empathy? I used to be that way and it was so tiring feeling everyone's pain with them. I understand that not caring for anyone at all is bad, but to care for everyone isn't good either.
- lyssword, on 12/27/2007, -0/+7This has nothing to do with being successful or creative. It has to do with the fact that you are an ***** or not.
- LeeSoong, on 12/27/2007, -1/+8" A fatherless child becomes a mother's embarrassment. "
- or something like that. Even a so-so dad is better than no dad, no guidance, no discipline... - evil-doer, on 12/27/2007, -2/+9yeah, the repubs get mad at you for saying it. but they also get mad at ANYONE that cares for other people, other animals, or the environment. selfishness is what rules them, and fear of anything not like them. id have to say the vast majority of people who call themselves republicans have this. at least the holdout ones that are STILL behind bush and the neocons, those are 100%
- inactive, on 12/27/2007, -1/+8For some reason I want to punch your face.
- DIGGADEEP, on 12/27/2007, -1/+8"Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Sharing the results of psychological experiments (and the story of the Santa Cruz Strangler), he explains how we are all born with the capacity for empathy -- but we sometimes choose to ignore it."
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/200 - inactive, on 12/27/2007, -8/+15So leave already.
- trancelicious, on 12/27/2007, -1/+8legalize MDMA and you'll have a cure!
- geddon, on 12/27/2007, -2/+9Congratulations! You've just been nominated for the "American of the Year" award! You are now eligible to win a round-trip vacation to Liberty Island, home of the world famous Statue of Liberty, where you and your family will participate in a moment of television history: Rewriting our old, rusty pledge to read: "BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS, BECAUSE WE DON'T CARE!!!"
- Rapsting, on 12/27/2007, -19/+26It's not that I don't care about others, it's just that I don't care about our species as a whole. I don't care about the survival of our species - We're a destructive, violent, and generally stupid bunch of animals, and the Earth would be much better off without us.
- GRTWHT, on 12/27/2007, -0/+7Fine, you get Kevin to fix the comments so I can edit it and say lots and I'll change it.
Based on my experiences throughout my life, I believe that it is a majority, but I could be wrong. - bukiyou, on 12/27/2007, -3/+9yeah. too much empathy is bad.
I probably have too much empathy now, which is the total opposite of what I used to be. I break into tears whenever I read the newspaper, whenever someone needs help. Sure, I have great interpersonal relationships but the constant pain is not worth it. Now I see people suffering and I see the mechanisms of what's going on and understand there's no point in me trying to get them out of a rut they don't want to.
Take care of the people who matter to you. They're the ones who'll cry for you, not the world. - augmental, on 12/27/2007, -1/+7"The best I can do is stop badgering her for pussy for a few hours while we go to the grave" - well played sir, well played
- fartbuttes, on 12/27/2007, -2/+8Great, another made-up disorder for the drug companies to sell us more crap we don't need.
Disorder Formula:
[Vague and highly subjective behavior already covered under an established school of psychology, e.g. "sociopathy"] + [Clever acronym] = YOU HAVE A DISORDER
**BREAKING NEWS** Scientists have recently discovered that not everyone is exactly the same and that different people have different brain chemistries giving rise to the curious phenomenon called "personality" and sometimes these personalities are not exactly in line with the norm. - lyssword, on 12/27/2007, -1/+7Empathy is not bad just save it for people who give "at least two *****" about you :)
- rda1441, on 12/27/2007, -1/+6If you care so much, send me money., I have EDD and need therapy to overcome it.
- Pause, on 12/27/2007, -1/+6Where I'm from they call it "Not giving a *****".
- Pissoff, on 12/27/2007, -3/+8I disagree, there is a prize that they value more than they value a random life.
- geddon, on 12/27/2007, -0/+5Imagine seeing the light without feeling the warmth -- and then suffering all the fools who scream: "BLAH BLAH BLAH, it's called sunLIGHT for a REASON!"
- inajeep, on 12/27/2007, -1/+6I believe this affliction is a global issue and not just with US. It's also unintelligent to lump everyone in the US together like that since it inevitably be shown that the entire US does not had EDD. The amount that Americans give personally shouldn't be brushed aside like it's nothing.
- KrazyA1pha, on 12/27/2007, -0/+5Woah, man... You are like so totally dark and stuff.
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