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A Triple Empathy Problem - think about it.

Phased

Readers of this may be aware of Sir Baron Cohen's work of the problem of empathy for autistics from 2009 and beyond.

Readers of this may also be aware of and have lived experiences of the Double Empathy Problem as described by Dr Damian Milton in 2012.

Recently I have been thinking that as well as including double empathy problems between neurodiverse and neurotypical maybe the model could do with expanding again.

There is a third empathy problem that is also in the mix:

"be kind to yourself", get to know the neurodivergent you" etc.are the sort of advice and practice that I encounter post diagnosis.  These are problems of empathising with oneself as neurodivergent which many of us work so hard to overcome.

I suggest promotion of awareness of the triple empathy problem.

ThinkingNeutral faceVulcan

Parents

  • Could this just be another aspect of the double-empathy problem? Our high-masking NT-like personas cannot empathise with our unmasked ND personas? 

  • in reply to Damojo

    Yes  I believe you are right in identifying the cause of the problem as being the high masking self not empathising with the ND self and vice versa - itself a dual empathy problem.  Albeit an "internal" one for the autistic person. 

    I think the dual empathy problem is normally applied to two people tho' 

    Therefore I suggest highlighting the struggle autistic people have in empathising with themself by coining the term "triple empathy problem"

    On a linked point I am drawn to consider that neurotypical people are perhaps less inclined to have an empathy problem with themselves as neurotypical society validates how they feel more readily than it does neurodiverse.

    I acknowledge that this may be an inference I am drawing however this is how it both "appears" to me by observation and what i have learned to consider by reading about and discussion of the topic.

    What do you reckon?

  • in reply to Phased
    Phased said:
    I think the dual empathy problem is normally applied to two people tho'

    Maybe we can make an important contribution to Autism research by generalising it to two neurotypes (possibly living in the same brain). Wink

    I "reckon" what you wrote makes a lot of sense. We tend to rate ourselves against what is "normal" and NDs are always going to fall short if that is the target. The neurodiversity paradigm tells us that we are picking the wrong target.

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  • in reply to Phased
    Phased said:
    I think the dual empathy problem is normally applied to two people tho'

    Maybe we can make an important contribution to Autism research by generalising it to two neurotypes (possibly living in the same brain). Wink

    I "reckon" what you wrote makes a lot of sense. We tend to rate ourselves against what is "normal" and NDs are always going to fall short if that is the target. The neurodiversity paradigm tells us that we are picking the wrong target.

Children
  • in reply to Damojo

    Thanks  

    Damojo said:
    neurotype

    I think this a good way of describing it.  What you write makes sense to me too

    The model also fits with evidence that autism is misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder.

    hehe as regards what I wrote making sense well "so far so good" (there's a joke there from the magnificent seven film...)

    Damojo said:
    we are picking the wrong target

    I admit to having a martial background myself (long story...) anyway, perhaps another term might be "where we are focusing our attention"  Less conflict = happier people? :-)

    Vulcan