|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2009 12:27:21 GMT
What is empathy?
Quote: Empathy, which literally translates as 'in feeling', is the capability to share another being's emotions and feelings.
We are not born with it are we? I think it's something that we learn or maybe have to be taught when we are young.
Some are not capable of showing empathy. How do they manage to skip up on something so vital in their lives?
I'm just curious.
|
|
|
|
Post by spindrift on Nov 23, 2009 11:05:06 GMT
Do you see yourself as 'empathetic'? I think you are. I am.
I feel that I was born with a leaning towards being empathetic and it has developed more strongly over the years.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2009 11:41:24 GMT
I think I am, yes. I've grown more so, as I've gotten older.
|
|
|
|
Post by fumobici on Nov 23, 2009 22:02:07 GMT
I seem to be growing more empathetic, patient and forgiving as I get older.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2009 22:08:37 GMT
I am excessively empathetic. I would like to reel it in a few notches. Without even discussing the psychological existential aspects of it, I have the misfortune of actually feeling the pain of somebody who falls down in the street or gets a hand smashed in a door. It is a sort of "phantom limb" pain as is felt by amputees, except that all I need to do is see it to feel it.
The pain only lasts for a moment but it is very intense.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2009 22:46:37 GMT
Kerouac, you are very tuned into people's feelings. Not only on an emotional level, but on an intellectual level too. That is something I have always noticed.
I'm much the same, if one of my kids gets hurt, has a tummy ache or whatever, I can actually feel the pain. It's hard to describe. It's not the same with anyone else though. But I can empathize with others.
The only thing about being this way, it that not only do you feel others' pain, but also their anger, their hate, and all the negative emotions too, at least that is what I have found. So a mental 'switch off' button is necessary..
|
|
|
|
Post by imec on Nov 24, 2009 13:38:04 GMT
This was a national news story yesterday, but as the family was from Winnipeg, I will endure another day of feeling their pain every time I hear the news repeated. It will be a long time before I'm able to walk past the railing in the Toronto airport without the memory of the event haunting me - I am only glad it didn't happen while I was there. Mother lost grip in child's airport fall: police |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2009 15:01:20 GMT
That is so sad. I feel for the parents. There can be no bigger pain then losing your own child.
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 28, 2009 0:53:55 GMT
oh that is horrible... that must be so horrible for the parents...
|
|
|
|
Post by imec on Nov 28, 2009 0:59:59 GMT
it is horrible. The father was on the news today talking about trying to deal with it and how to explain to their 4 year old. Truly heartbreaking.
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 28, 2009 22:23:06 GMT
i guess it is horrible for all of them, but worst for the mother, i suppose. i can't even begin to imagine what she must feel like...
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2009 17:09:22 GMT
Must be hard to carry on after losing a child...
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2009 18:22:21 GMT
The day before yesterday, Mme. B, one of my mother's corridor neighbors, went psycho and was ranting and raving everywhere. She tried to move into other rooms and was saying totally delerious things that were hard to follow. Twice she told me that the floor had turned into red ropes and that specks of gold had emerged from it. In the same breath, she kept saying that they had been fed nothing for the entire day, just a bowl of café au lait. Since she was still wearing her nightgown at 3pm, I presume that her mind was stuck somewhere in the morning.
Anyway, she tried to move into Mme. F's room, but unfortunately Mme. F is one of the few residents on the floor who is not deeply into Alzheimer's, so she was vigorously protesting. The orderlies were having no luck getting her out of the room (I could hear the yelling from my mother's room), so I decided that I had to do something.
I went and took her by the hand and told her that I would show her where her room was. When she is in a normal state, she respects me, so she came along with me to the end of the hall. My god, what a vision of horror! The sheets had been stripped from the bed and thrown on the floor, there were papers all over the floor, a broken flower pot with dirt everywhere, clothes emptied from the closet and strewn around, a suitcase on the bed...
I sat her on her bed and the orderlies arrived, and then two nurses, and they got the situation under control. My mother was fuming for having been abandoned, but when I went back to the room she said "I understand what you did but I think you don't love me anymore."
Apparently, empathy is a rationed substance.
(Mme. B has been in the hospital for observation for the last two days, so everything is back to normal.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2009 22:47:31 GMT
or back to abnormal as it were...
|
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Dec 1, 2009 23:38:34 GMT
hm, am curious to see how things will go with bf's mom, as she will move to a home on thursday. he'll probably stay overnight at her place tomorrow, as he expect her to be in quite a state after packing, he didn't remind her today, and of course she has forgotten from the times before when he explained it to her... and to top it all he is sick, and should really stay at home in bed. (instead he lashes out at me when we talk on msn and i disagree with him, oh well... i suppose that will stop once things settle in a bit).
|
|
