Yes, NTs do lack empathy in comparison to Aspies. Read about it in the new groundbreaking study reported by Maia Szalavitz (of the Daily Beast), published on May 14, 2009, at www.HealthZone.ca in an article titled Asperger’s theory does about-face: Rather than ignoring others, researchers think spectrum sufferers care too much.
Whether you claim people on the autism spectrum are over-sensitive (care too much?!?!?) or NTs are not sensitive enough (i.e., NT spectrum sufferers can’t care enough) is all relative. It’s like choosing to say something is cheap versus inexpensive. Descriptions determine the initial impression.
I’m not saying NTs lack empathy to give the impression that Aspies are superior. My motive is to shock first, then balance out the damage already done by libelous reports spread around claiming that AS people lack empathy. I also need to get it through my thick skull, once and for all, that most people are not as sensitive as I am and they are not able to realize the existence of a culture comprised of individuals with an empathy level beyond what they can comprehend.
What I have trouble comprehending is why theories are published when facts can be gotten straight from the source BEFORE false statements about a minority get established and abusive. The theory from my research suggests credentials are everything to neurotypicals.
My favorite part of Szalavitz’s article on Aspies being highly empathetic is where Schwars says,
When it comes to not understanding the inner state of minds too different from our own, most people also do a lousy job, Schwarz says. “But the non-autistic majority gets a free pass because, if they assume that the other person’s mind works like their own, they have a much better chance of being right.”
The whole article would be great if only the bias for NTs was left out, but I guess that’s to be expected from insensitive people. I won’t point out the words which reveal this, because if you can’t see where they are, then it should make you realize you’re really suffering from a lack of empathy.
This explains why it is that the more people there are at a social gathering, the more I become a wallflower:
“I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling,” Kamila Markram says. “The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it. There are those who say autistic people don’t feel enough. We’re saying exactly the opposite: They feel too much.”
Said another, “I am clueless when it comes to reading subtle cues but I am very empathic. I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling and I think this is actually quite common in AS/autism. The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it.”
Studies have found that when people are overwhelmed by empathetic feelings, they tend to pull back. When someone else’s pain affects you deeply, it can be hard to reach out rather than turn away.
This explains why I’m generally able to comprehend human behavior better than most others:
Schwarz, of the New England Asperger’s association, says all the autistic adults he knows over the age of 18 have a better sense of what others know than the Sally/Anne test suggests.
I can’t even describe how closely I relate with this statement:
“If anything, I struggle with having too much empathy,” one person says. “If someone else is upset, I am upset. There were times during school when other people were misbehaving and, if the teacher scolded them, I felt like they were scolding me.”
No wonder NTs come up with such statements as the “intense world” theory for non-NTs. For those who live in a more careless state of being, I can see how they’d refer to a heightened awareness as being intense. It also makes sense why even my dreams are more vivid than what most people have.
Postscript added on 10.1.9 — It never ceases to amaze me how much NTs insist on twisting positive Aspie traits into negative ones! Why did Maia Szalavitz claim Aspies, “…feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.” when she should have said Aspies, “feel others’ emotions more than NTs can relate to.”??? At least she could have clarified what it is exactly that’s difficult for Aspies to cope with → NTs do not have sufficient empathy to know how to be with people who are better able to feel what others are feeling.
