RE: Psychology Addict # 47 | Putting Ourselves in Other’s Shoes
Ego ! 😊 ❤
I was interested in the way you associated your inability to feel empathy towards people and the way you perceive people in general. Most certainly the way we see people affects the emotions we have towards them. However (and correct me if I am wrong), this seems to refer to empathic feelings in retrospect. Or, do you see people as 'shades' also whilst you are with them? Ps: I understand this is not judgmental.
You are the second person already in this thread, thus far, discussing how empathy can be taught/learnt (at least cognitive). This is very exciting for me to hear. I haven't come across any studies on neuropsychology suggesting the lack of emotional empathy might be inherited. But, if I may give my opinion, I believe this has more to do with learnt (or 'unlearnt') behaviour than inherited factors, as it was briefly discussed here too.
Great conclusion about how promising, as a whole, the implementation of cognitive empathy can be as a means not only for personal, but also for social achievements.
Thank you so much for coming by once again my dear, dear Ego.
I trust you are taking good care of yourself!
Much love to you always and forever ❤
Besides very few people I actually do. I simply cannot relate to most people in any way emotionally - yet alone feel emotional empathy towards them. Usually I'm more interested about raw information gathering about another person, because having more knowledge about someone/thing is always better.
But I immediately forget people's name after they tell me. I once lived together with two guys in a flat and it took me about half a year to figure out the name of the second guy - and only because my other flat mate called him once. So, yeah, I think "shades" describes it quite accurately.
Maybe. I'm not sure about that. I think it's a combination of both. An inherited lack of empathy due to brain structure and epigenetic factors as well. I had always difficulties adjusting to social norms and feelings of others - it took me years to really learn how to behave adequately during social interactions.