http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liane-kupferberg-carter/autism-and-empathy_b_3281691.html
This article gives a brief history of how autism came to be associated with a lack of empathy. It also makes an important point about empathy: that just because you lack the innate cognitive ability to recognize why someone is sad or angry doesn't mean you lack the ability to emotionally share or pick up on that sadness or anger.
Personally, I feel like I fell behind on the cognitive ability, at least for awhile, but the emotional ability to feel others' emotions has been there, making my life painful. I think in general I have a low tolerance for emotions. I used to cry a lot when I was little, whether I was in pain or sad or angry or happy. It wasn't a choice, my eyes just got started and didn't wait for the rest of me to okay that it was appropriate to do so. Sometimes my eyes' enthusiasm plagues me to this day, and it irritates the heck out of me.
I can't tell if LENS has made that better or worse. I feel more emotions now, rather than walling them away because they're exasperating and don't make sense and are hideously inconvenient. But they're still plenty exasperating, hideously inconvenient, and don't make sense.
I think maybe I'll keep that phrase "my eyes' enthusiasm," or maybe "my eyes' exuberance" to describe why I tear up more often than I'd like. It's a fallacy, of course, my brain is probably the culprit, but I have a lot of things to scowl at my brain about already. Best to spread out the blame and maybe amuse some people in the process.
This article gives a brief history of how autism came to be associated with a lack of empathy. It also makes an important point about empathy: that just because you lack the innate cognitive ability to recognize why someone is sad or angry doesn't mean you lack the ability to emotionally share or pick up on that sadness or anger.
Personally, I feel like I fell behind on the cognitive ability, at least for awhile, but the emotional ability to feel others' emotions has been there, making my life painful. I think in general I have a low tolerance for emotions. I used to cry a lot when I was little, whether I was in pain or sad or angry or happy. It wasn't a choice, my eyes just got started and didn't wait for the rest of me to okay that it was appropriate to do so. Sometimes my eyes' enthusiasm plagues me to this day, and it irritates the heck out of me.
I can't tell if LENS has made that better or worse. I feel more emotions now, rather than walling them away because they're exasperating and don't make sense and are hideously inconvenient. But they're still plenty exasperating, hideously inconvenient, and don't make sense.
I think maybe I'll keep that phrase "my eyes' enthusiasm," or maybe "my eyes' exuberance" to describe why I tear up more often than I'd like. It's a fallacy, of course, my brain is probably the culprit, but I have a lot of things to scowl at my brain about already. Best to spread out the blame and maybe amuse some people in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment