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Discovery 3 - Empathy (and testing)

Lotus

Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?
Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short.


Empathy comes in 3 "flavours" . 

Cognitive empathy is the ability to know how other people feel and what they might be thinking. Also known as perspective taking, it is useful for motivating people or in negotiations. I never knew this was a type of empathy until recently. It requires good non verbal communication skills, which is why autistic people have difficulty with it (See my previous post "Discovery 2 - Let's talk about communication" for more  information)

Compassionate empathy is wanting to help other people, or animals, in pain and distress. People who have this trait but can keep an emotional distance to avoid being overcome by it make good nurses, paramedics etc. 

Emotional or affective empathy is when you feel another person's emotion. Autistic people can feel this very strongly, sometimes more than an NT person, so the assumption that we have no empathy is not true. This misunderstanding may be caused by our struggle to know how to respond to the distress of others, which could be interpreted as a lack of caring. However Autistic people may get overcome by their distressing emotions and may shut down emotionally in response to to becoming overloaded.

The Voight-Kampff test was in a movie, however  there are empathy tests, plus many others, to determine whether a person is Autistic. This can be useful, as it can lead to kind, empathic people helping those who want and need support to deal with  life. But testing and diagnosis should not be allowed to lead to doubts over competence or the feeling that one is doing something "wrong". NT people misread Autistic people too.  It's just difference.

Parents
  • Lotus said:
    Emotional or affective empathy is when you feel another person's emotion. Autistic people can feel this very strongly, sometimes more than an NT person, so the assumption that we have no empathy is not true. This misunderstanding may be caused by our struggle to know how to respond to the distress of others, which could be interpreted as a lack of caring. However Autistic people may get overcome by their distressing emotions and may shut down emotionally in response to to becoming overloaded.

    So much nonsense is written about autists and their empathy quotient.  It is largely misunderstanding and misconception based on a neurotypical idea of how empathy should manifest in human beings.  The double empathy problem sums it up for me.  It isn't just we autists who have mindblindness.  It works both ways.  I might not know how to respond if I come across a person in an agony of despair, but it doesn't mean that I don't understand what they're going through.

  • in reply to Rocinante
    Rocinante said:
    I might not know how to respond if I come across a person in an agony of despair, but it doesn't mean that I don't understand what they're going through.

    How would you know it was an agony of despair? That's the difficulty I have is that there could be a number of reasons for why the person is like that, as in crying can mean lots of things too. This is why for me there is that delay to respond as I try to work out what is going on, followed by either inappropriate remarks or actions. In respect to understanding what they're going through, can't do it, I can only do this if it's something I've directly experienced myself.

  • in reply to NAS49761

    What is interesting  though is that I can be highly emotionally reactive  myself to things, especially sensory overload but didn't understand this very well either until I learned more about emotions from my OT.

    So not only is there the difficulty understanding other people's emotions, there is also the difficulty understanding my own. 

  • in reply to Rip Van Wrinkle

    Absolutely Rip Van Wrinkle, even with all the work I've done with OT I still have difficulty and rather than the added stress of trying to verbalise these things we call it my 'zones', my blue,  green, yellow and red zones! 

  • in reply to NAS49761

    Also i have difficulty VERBALISING my emotions, telling people how I feel in a way they can understand. I think lots of people in general have that problem. What I call ‘regretful’ for instance probably means something completely different to the person hearing my words. As with ‘I think I understand’ too. It’s never before occurred to me that there are three ‘flavours’ of empathy. Is there a fourth one? Intuitive empathy? 

Reply
  • in reply to NAS49761

    Also i have difficulty VERBALISING my emotions, telling people how I feel in a way they can understand. I think lots of people in general have that problem. What I call ‘regretful’ for instance probably means something completely different to the person hearing my words. As with ‘I think I understand’ too. It’s never before occurred to me that there are three ‘flavours’ of empathy. Is there a fourth one? Intuitive empathy? 

Children
  • in reply to Rip Van Wrinkle

    Absolutely Rip Van Wrinkle, even with all the work I've done with OT I still have difficulty and rather than the added stress of trying to verbalise these things we call it my 'zones', my blue,  green, yellow and red zones!