Beth Orton - Central Reservation (faster version)
A follow-up to Against Empathy, from a reader:
An example of this: One of my very dear friends, who is one of the kindest and most compassionate people I know, very openly discusses having low reflexive/emotional empathy as part of their experience of being autistic, and how it has helped them be a reliable person in crises because they aren't frozen by mirroring someone else's pain and can be clear-headed enough to actually be helpful (having the presence of mind to call for appropriate help or follow first aid procedures, for example.)
Emotional or reflexive empathy so often gets held up as some sort of gold standard of human goodness, when it's just that - a reflex that people have or don't have to varying degrees. Making the point that it biases us to those closest to us - and most similar to us, those that the reflex responds most strongly to - and can be harmful is very important and well said here. Compassion and cognitive empathy, which we can learn and practice and extend further intentionally rather than reflexively, are much more valuable and we definitely benefit from putting more weight on them.
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