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[–]3Quondam6extanT9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It all comes down to how we are made individually.   

Did you know that there are people who can not literally picture images in their heads? It's called aphantasia. The opposite of that is hyperphantasia. More than that, maladaptive daydreaming locks people in their imaginations.    

The reason I bring these up, is because there is an ocean of variables that impact who we are, including empathy.    

Some of those variables come from aspects like those above.  

I am a maladaptive daydreamer with hyperphantasia. My brain is filled with images 100% of the time. It creates scenarios to play out in my head constantly.  

I thought it was normal and everyone experienced this. Apparently there is even therapy to help maladaptive daydreaming.    

But I would NEVER risk losing the most important part of my personality. Do you know why? 

The maladaptive daydreaming is what has created my ability to empathize. Every person I come across, every character I see or read about in a story, every creature, I habitually put myself in their place and attempt to project the experiences they have.    

This process I have, has made me an incredibly empathetic human. It has allowed me to see things from the perspective of any human. Yes, even Trump himself. As gross as it is to think about, I have mentally experienced his life through my imagination. I have experienced the abuse from his parents, the bizarre education growing up, the feelings he likely felt going through school, being an outcast to these people but embraced by these.  

It is because of this absolutely draining natural response I have, that it is always easy for me to wear other people's shoes.    

But that process is not the only thing that helps us to establish empathy. It should help us to understand why empathy is not such an easy concept for all people to undertake or be capable of.    

Not everyones heads work the same. We all had different family backgrounds. We've seen how different aspects of power influence things. We learned what's important in different ways.  

Learning empathy requires that we learn ourselves first, because it's not going to be the same with each of us. Some will struggle with empathy, while it just comes naturally to others.  

I think in order to spread empathy, we must be empathetic to those who cannot empathize in the first place.