Empathy & the Brain

[shereads]

My thoughts exactly.

We're both right. I'm thinking of "emotional empathy" which is something I don't choose to feel, also called "automatic empathy" in the article below. You're referring to "cognitive empathy," a learned skill:

is there a distinction between cognitive and emotional empathy?

Hodges and Wegner: The simplest example of automatic empathy is emotional and occurs quickly without prior intention. May be invoked by environmental cues. Controlled empathy is more often cognitive empathy (perspective taking?), which is effortful and difficult to achieve. The success of controlled empathy is dependent on the individual's ability to find cues to the experience that will induce the empathic state of mind.

I can't remember life without Google.

 

[impressive]

I can't remember life without Google.

Or Lit.

 

[shereads]

This touches on a deep subject in the philosphy of mind, which I feel strange discussing through posts on a forum in a free porn story site.

I know. If we paid for our porn, the philosophical discussions wouldn't seem so out of place.

How do you know you feel strange? Maybe what you're feeling is common.

 

[shereads]

It wasn't sympathy that made me leave the theater and wait in the lobby during "Pulp Fiction" when I realized that Bruce Willis' character to was about to be taken prisoner by a sadistic collector of Nazi memorabilia. It's only a movie, and why should I feel sorry for a fictitious character who visits Nazi stores?

It was empathy. Not cognitive empathy, but "automatic empathy triggered by cues in the environment." I felt sick. I felt the onset of despair. I'd feel the same thing just reading that part of the screenplay. It's an automatic reaction that has nothing to do with shared feelings.

 

[NoJo]

It wasn't sympathy that made me leave the theater and wait in the lobby during "Pulp Fiction" when I realized that Bruce Willis' character to was about to be taken prisoner by a sadistic collector of Nazi memorabilia. It's only a movie, and why should I feel sorry for a fictitious character who visits Nazi stores?

It was empathy. Not cognitive empathy, but "automatic empathy triggered by cues in the environment." I felt sick. I felt the onset of despair. I'd feel the same thing just reading that part of the screenplay. It's an automatic reaction that has nothing to do with shared feelings.

Zelig. You should rent it.

 

[shereads]

Zelig. You should rent it.

Not the same. Zelig would have become Bruce Willis, as a way of fitting in with other prisoners of Nazi-loving sadists.

 

[NoJo]

Not the same. Zelig would have become Bruce Willis, as a way of fitting in with other prisoners of Nazi-loving sadists.

Is this your pain I'm currenlty feeling in my head, by any chance?

 

[shereads]

Is this your pain I'm currenlty feeling in my head, by any chance?

No, it looks like Gauche's pain or maybe Og's. Mine is fluffier.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Very interesting thread. I'd like to throw in an example that goes contrary to what others have suggested about empathy relating to being nice.

The example is that of the cruel man who derives joy from the pain of others.
According to Scheler, this man takes his pleasure by sensing the pain of others in empathy.

This goes to say to say that when we sense the feeling of someone else in empathy, it is not the case that we feel a real feeling that has somehow been evoked in us.


DrF

Hmmm, this sounds like the boundry tiptoed by comedians. There is an old adage that comedy is just tragedy plus time.

I taught a class once about acting in comedies, and one of the ideas I tried to get across was that, whether something is "funny" or not isn't really the point. The point is, how do you make something "funny"? My example was Johnny Carson, who (I said) was often funniest when his material was the worst. So, I taught about setting up jokes in earlier scenes, and misdirection, and telegraphing subtle clues, and finding "universiality" in characters, then playing against that.

This is a much more provocative way of approaching the issue. As an actor, there are times when you want the audience to feel your pain, and there are times when you want them to laugh at it - and part of that is understanding it, but having already overcome it (humor), or understanding it, but seeing it as a comeuppance (slapstick). Those are just a couple ideas that come to mind.

Thanks, Dr. M. This is a much more interesting thread than debating about how many Cardinals can dance on the head of a penis.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Definitions from two different sources:

Empathy (OneLook online Dictionary): understanding and entering into another's feelings

Empathy (Mirriam Webster): the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another [my bold] of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this

Sympathy (OneLook online Dictionary): sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)

Sympathy (Mirriam Webster): 3 a : the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another b : the feeling or mental state brought about by such sensitivity <have sympathy for the poor>

Seems the professionals have some crossover consusuon too.

I'll stick with my original understandings.

When I sympathize with a beggar, I understand what he feels.

When I empathize with a beggar, I feel what he feels.

 

[Guest]

that really did make alot of sense to me Dr. m
thanks for clearing that up because i know that alot of people, including myself mix the two.