Creative or Low EQ & Logical?

This may be of interest! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh1IsnwVQis

Francesca Heppe is the professor I mentioned. I'm going to start another thread on Empathy. I think it would be well worth more specific discussion! Cheers for the inspiration.

I can't speak for others, but I have learned to pretend to show empathy by learning what it looks like and when to show it. Even then, I still show it less often than NTs, but I have worked out the best mechanisms and habits to avoid being called "a cold heartless monster" by showing it at the appropriate times. 

To be accurate, I don't lack empathy, I just have less of it, so I use it very sparingly. It's a precious commodity and I don't see why NTs feel the need to mark their emotional territory with it or cheapen it by spray-painting every interaction with it.

Reading back on my response I suspect this may fall into the un-empathetic category 

So, Sorry to hear about your childhood. I had an abusive parent too. It was chaotic and I was frightened of her. 

I wish your internal self some new memories. 

Yes please, share the link when you find it

Absolutely. 

I have to say, I have trouble deciphering Empathy Vs. Empathetic/Sympathetic. I feel deeply - sometimes too much. I can't always tell if anger is a mask for pain or righteous indignation or entitlement or a frustrating series of events. But if a kid is crying, I tend to feel deeply for them and with them and want to assist.

I listened to a podcast with a prof. from Kings College not too long ago on how psychopaths Relate to NTs but cannot empathise with but use the relatable information to manipulate others. She also said this is one defining difference between psychopaths and autistics as ASD individuals cannot manipulate others as they cannot Relate, but do have deep emotions and can easily be taught empathy through art. I really need to find this podcast. It was the first time I think someone explained we may be using the term wrong. 

Very well put.

There's one part which I totally agree with, and wish to add a side-point to:

"No one can read anyone else's mind"

Maybe not read minds, but one can read other signs such as facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, use of certain words etc ... I was a child of a violent parent and as a kid I had to read into these things super quick as part of self-protection. I could tell by the way the front door was closed, the frequency and strength of my parent's breathing, the bluntness of a footstep, and much more as to when was time to shut a bedroom door and basically hide.

I didn't definitely know when I was about to get hit, but I could predict it with high statistical accuracy based upon some very subtle indications.

In terms of with empathy. I feel it's like how a dog can sniff out certain things. The dog 'knows' a smell. Sure, the dog can sometimes get it wrong, but generally the right answers come more often than the wrong. My empathy seems to have grown over time I've found. Basically, over time I've become attuned to people. My predictions (initially guesses) about what they're feeling has improved over time and I've got more confident and that's helped me refine my empathy further.

A similar thing can happen with music training. People can learn to name the right note. With time and practice many people can get better at correctly naming a musical note. There may be extra barriers for some, however, that makes it either very hard or impossible though.

Empathy can be learned, I believe, by some. As long as the person is getting reliable feedback, then there's decent opportunity to learn/develop it. I also appreciate that there may be some barriers for some people that make learning empathy either very difficult or impossible.

I just got a 13 score out of 80 on an empathy test.  But not with out verbally suggesting out loud into Thin Air that these tests are silly and seem a bit loaded. First of all, No one can read anyone else's mind. It's literally ridiculous that society reinforces presumption as a virtue when it's the opposite. And somedays I prefer animals or imaginary friends to real ones, but animals are expensive and I love my friends. I'm simply highly selective about the ones I have and care for quite deeply. If I had more money I might have more time to have more friends as they are a big commitment and investment and it's amazing but exhausting knowing and spending time with others. These tests are about relating to the majority of the population on a surface level I suppose.

However, I don't think there's an Either/Or to this, to be fair. We're human. Logic is an element in the process of creating which is in a way connected to empathy. Empathy can be learned through art and all art can affect one's logic. Logic is a process all humans use to reach conclusions regardless of whether or not they can show the logic of their thinking. 

I do LOVE logic, especially symbolic. Kant writes in the most beautiful logic but most days I cannot always follow literal path signals or an order of doing a thing without talking through them out loud to myself. I also create. I believe everything is creative / creating. Destruction / deconstruction plays a role in the process of creation like turning the soil and digging up a garden is an act of annihilation for creation. 

Fun topic tho!

Added: Emotional vs. Logical is a myth. It's a contorted wording which came from Instinct vs. Reason. (Animal nature vs. Human Reasoning)

I am creative and highly empathetic, although I have been described as unempathetic because I can be too blunt and tactless. However I am also very analytical, not sure about logical because I am driven by my emotions. I don't think it's true that autistics are unempathetic; we just don't know how to express our empathy sometimes, and we get baffled by NTs and their nonsensical ways.

I scored low on the eq test too I'd say that I'm creative in the way I think I'm not an artist or anything like that I used to do a lot of photography and I'm pretty good at it but its not a passion.

I'm good at solving problems and coming up with efficient ways of doing things and I see patterns in things that people don't see which is an autistic thing and ive been told that a lot by people who know me "how did you see/know that" etc etc.

I wouldn't say I'm VERY logical maybe more than the average person but I am very analytical, I think people often get the two mixed up I look into things very deeply and I can pick out small details and study them but it doesn't mean that what I see/find is useful a lot of the time it isn't I just can't help it my brain picks things out that normal people don't and it's gotten me in situations where I've taken the complete wrong meaning of something and made look stupid, if you get what I mean.

I would tend to put myself into a 'creative' camp. I compose songs, write the odd bit of fiction, like dreaming up pictures (even if I don't actually get round to drawing or painting many of them). I also refer to myself as an empath. I'm quite emotionally driven. If I had to put myself on the spectrum (yet to have the diagnosis rituals run), I'd say I probably lean more towards ADHD. I have a fair number of the autism traits [too many to list out  ]

Am I logical? I think I'd have to say yes to this too. My degree was a maths degree. I tend to do many activities in a logical way - my logical way of washing up has irritated other people I live with.

Then again, I've had a partner who was a level or two of logical above me. When I communicate, I come across quite scatter-brained because I'm mindful of many ways of looking at a situation. Some areas of life, I feel, are too complicated for a strictly logical approach.

If I had to choose just one side, I'd choose creative/empathic - however, with a maths/engineer type of mindset too, I'm certainly quite logical as well.