So, I see that Simon Baron-Cohen’s empathy test is making the rounds on Tumblr. That provides me with an opportunity to talk about a common misunderstanding about empathy.
[Read the whole post; it’s very good]
But the point with this post was to illustrate the difference between different kinds of empathy, and not do so in a wishy-washy New Age kind of way. This is especially important since empathy is often not used in a value neutral way: often, to say that such-and-such is empathic often implies that they are a good person, while saying that such-and-such lacks empathy often implies that they are akin to a psychopath.