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Posted By: Chickie What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 12:18 PM
cannot empathize? Is there a technical term for this? One from the doctor's textbook?

New Here! This is my first post. Looks like fun! I can see that I will be consulting my dictionary quite a bit to understand everything here! [blush}

Posted By: wsieber Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 01:19 PM
Hi,
You start off on a hot one! I hope you are not going to use it straight away on a real person. In the extreme, pathological case such a character would be an autistic person.

Posted By: Bobyoungbalt Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 03:26 PM
Hmmm. Instead of going to the dictionaries, I would have another look in Pride and Prejudice for Elizabeth Bennet's impressions of Mr. Darcy.

Posted By: Chickie Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 05:03 PM
Right! Hot question! But not in the pathological extreme -- just your run-of-the-mill self-absorbed person. Any technical classification for a person like this?

Posted By: Capital Kiwi Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 05:10 PM
Pyschotic? Selfish? A politician?

Posted By: bear-tiger Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 05:57 PM
Republican.

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 07:17 PM
When asked "what do you call someone who cannot empathise?", bear-tiger suggested Republican

That's torn it! As someone who prides himself on being devoutly apolitical, I feel obliged to warn you that our youngest board member, and staunch Republican, will no doubt feel compelled to weigh in - let' em have it, Jazz!



Posted By: TEd Remington Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 07:18 PM
> Republican.

BUSHWA!

Can't wait to hear Jazz :)

Welcome aboard bear-tiger.

Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 07:38 PM
Well, I was going to try to bit my tongue and not say anything, but since Max and Ted want some fire. . .

I'll respond to bear-tiger's very subtle post by saying: And a person who wants to kill babies, force people into HMOs and tax people to death and who thinks that the Boy Scouts is a hate group is empathetic?


And by the way Max, I wouldn't consider myself a staunch republican. The survey at http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch calls me a moderate conservative. There are some republican ideas with which I don't agree, but when it comes to arguing, I go with the GOP. Plus, the way Al Gore makes a speech makes me sick.

Posted By: Faldage There's a place for this - 01/05/01 07:55 PM
If bear-tiger and JazzO would like they could take this to the Rant 'n' Rave booth at Car Talk's Cafe Dartre:

http://cartalk.cars.com/Mail/BBS/Rant-And-Rave/index.html

You can register here:

http://cartalk.cars.com/Tools/bbs-user-admin.pl?add_form=1

Or you can post unregistered.

And may the better man win.

Posted By: Chickie Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 07:58 PM
Grinning!

Posted By: nemo Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 07:58 PM
In reply to:

The survey at http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch calls me a moderate conservative.


Isn't that an oxymoron?

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 08:13 PM
Jazz enlightened me with this: And by the way Max, I wouldn't consider myself a staunch republican. The survey at http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch calls me a moderate conservative. There are some republican ideas with which I don't agree, but when it comes to arguing, I go with the GOP. Plus, the way Al Gore makes a speech makes me sick.

Fairy nuff, I sit corrected. I'm not sure it's right to speak so disrespeckfly 'bout the father of this here electrical Internet thingumabob, but!


Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 08:33 PM
The survey at http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch calls me a moderate conservative.

Isn't that an oxymoron?


Well, since you think it is, could you please tell us all why exactly it is an oxymoron? If this is an oxymoron, then we have to be fair and say that moderate liberal is as well.

I see it as perfectly plausible for someone to agree with most, but not all, of a certain party's beliefs.
Posted By: Solamente, Doug. Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 08:51 PM
My mom, a former RN at a nursing home, used to speak of "empathy fatigue". After working all day dealing with other people's complaints she would find it difficult to empathize with her own families' problems. God bless her, we empathized and forgave her.

Posted By: Capital Kiwi Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 09:02 PM
Half the nounal-adjective/noun combinations used in the English language could be called oxymorons. My personal favourite is "military intelligence". As an oxymoron it's right up there with the ultimate circumlocution, reputedly from the CIA, which defines "peace" as "permanent prehostility".

Let's not start arguing over the possible combinations of nouns which produce possible oxymorons - especially politically-related ones such as that one-word oxymoron, "politic" ... that way lieth madness

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/05/01 09:32 PM
The very un-delooped CapKiwi sagely suggested: Let's not start arguing over the possible combinations of nouns which produce possible oxymorons - especially politically-related ones such as that one-word oxymoron, "politic"

Agreed! Avoiding politics seems a politic course of action. Jazz, you are the one who has expressed your politicak opinions most forthrightly to date, and I think that you are to be commended for the restraint you have shown in this thread. I suspect that our little Miss nobody just likes to needle people a bit, from behind the sanctuary of her anonymity. Given that we have atheists and at least one cleric (of course, one can be both simultaneously) sharing this board very amicably, I'm sure that we can continue the tradition of leaving such matters as politics and religion where they belong - not here.

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: politics and religion - 01/05/01 09:50 PM
... for all we know, could be a little Mister nobody ['delicate cough' emoticon]. But yer point is taken and seconded, Max. ['hear, hear' emoticon]

Posted By: bear-tiger Re: There's a place for this - 01/05/01 10:04 PM
Okay, then. How about empath-path?--as an analogue to psychopath, sociopath....


Posted By: belMarduk Re: There's a place for this - 01/05/01 10:25 PM
Oh, I think bear-tiger has it. I recall the word sociopath being used to describe a young boy who showed no empathy towards anybody and was only concerned with the things that affected him. He did not understand, say, why it was bad to hurt someone.


Hello bear-tiger and chickie ... welcome on Board.

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen Re: politics and religion - 01/05/01 10:28 PM
AnnaS pointed out: for all we know, could be a little Mister nobody ['delicate cough' emoticon]. And that after I called Faldage for making sex-stereotyped assumptions! The shame of it all! I guess I jumped to the contusion I did because men never act that way.

Posted By: TEd Remington Black and blue marks - 01/06/01 04:16 PM
>I guess I jumped to the contusion I did because men never act that way.


Bruised but unbowed, I see. At least for a while. Probably a very SHORT while.

Posted By: Max Quordlepleen Re: Black and blue marks - 01/06/01 06:43 PM
Ted commented>I guess I jumped to the contusion I did because men never act that way.


Bruised but unbowed, I see. At least for a while.



Indeed. I've always been fond of that deliberate malapropism I picked up from my father. It seems wonderfully descriptive of what often happens when one jumps to conclusions.

Posted By: Chickie Person lacking empathy... - 01/12/01 09:29 PM
Nope...not sociopath either. Not what I'm seeking. Not that extreme. Not as extreme as autistic either.
Anyone???

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"
Posted By: tsuwm Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/12/01 09:58 PM
empathy itself is a rather new word/concept, translated early last century from the G. einfuhlung, maybe German has something for the lack thereof as well....

BTW ::nudge, nudge:: did you know that "Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"?

Posted By: musick Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/12/01 10:23 PM
Aren't crossthreads being created as we speak...

I understand why "not here", but can someone tell me why not at a "pub"? People seem to be (finally) loose enough to disrobe to thier political nakedness.

ps. Please, don't give me the obvious answer (ie. Why do you want to get your ass kicked?) - or - (Its bad luck to wish someone good luck)

pps. Jazz - please DO include "moderate liberal".

ppps. Did someone call creativity "a tool"? Lemmie atem!



Posted By: Jazzoctopus Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/12/01 10:30 PM
People seem to be (finally) loose enough to disrobe to thier political nakedness.

A few of us here have been naked for a while.

Posted By: Jackie Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/13/01 03:53 AM
How about insensitive, disinterested, or dispassionate?

Posted By: jmh Re: What do you call someone who... - 01/13/01 07:29 AM
>My mom, a former RN at a nursing home, used to speak of "empathy fatigue". After working all day dealing with other people's complaints she would find it difficult to empathize with her own families' problems. God bless her, we empathized and forgave her.

I empathise with your experience, I live with a doctor! It didn't take me long to realise that the only way to get anything medical noticed here would be to have something rare enough to merit a case report.

Posted By: wow Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/13/01 03:41 PM
Poster: Chickie
Subject: Re: Person lacking empathy...
Nope...not sociopath either. Not what I'm seeking. Not that extreme. Not as extreme as autistic either.
Anyone???

Uninvolved
Disinterested
Unempathetic
Self centered
Selfish
Cold
Unfeeling
Disconnected
wow
"Prosperity makes friends. Adversity tries them." Publius Syrus




Posted By: wsieber Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/15/01 06:45 AM
...not sociopath either. Not what I'm seeking. Not that extreme.

Hi again,

Frankly, I am rather glad that traits less severe than sociopath haven't yet found their way into the doctor's textbook. Introverts risk to be perceived as less empathizing than extroverts. My capacity to empathize may also depend on my mood and on other fleeting circumstances..
BTW, the German language doesn't offer a wider choice of terms in this field. The recent emphasis on empathy most certainly originated in the Anglo-saxon culture (Rogers and followers).

Posted By: Chickie Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/15/01 12:24 PM
I think "insensitive" covers it. Thanks. Since there doesn't seem to be a technical term, that comes closest to the definition I'm seeking.

"Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"
Posted By: belligerentyouth Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/15/01 01:30 PM
tsuwm wrote: translated early last century from the G. einfuhlung, maybe German has something for the lack thereof as well....

Well German's easy in that respect innit:
empathy = Einfühlung(svermögen)
a lack there of = Einfühlungsdefizit

Other synonyms:
uncaring
inconsiderate

btw .. while we're at it ...what's the difference (if any) between sympathy and empathy?

Posted By: tsuwm Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/15/01 04:43 PM
>what's the difference...

if you have sympathy you merely feel sorry for someone's plight, if you you have empathy, you've been there and done that -- it's a deeper feeling and understanding.

Posted By: bikermom Re: Person lacking empathy... - 01/22/01 03:59 PM
YOU WROTE ON MON, JAN 15--"while we're at it ...what's the difference (if any) between sympathy and empathy?"
Well ther is a huge difference, and also they are on the same level, relatively speaking!!!
SYMPATHY is just expressing your feelings to someone who is in pain, sometimes it is the right thing to do, sometimes it is what everyone else is doing and sometimes you really mean it when you say it because you have experienced the same thing-----and that is when it is really called
EMPATHY---when you really feel deep down, what the person is going through---there is an American saying--"One cannot not really know another person, unless they have walked in his moccasins (shoes)." And that means empathy, because they have experienced the same thing, whatever it may be!!!! Did I explain this right??? I hope.





enthusiast
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