16-04-2013, 09:56 PM
Jan and Magda,
I think your answers are the best. The lack of ability to identify with other people (lack of empathy) must arise in some early childhood experience such as physical and emotional abuse, isolation from others, and other traumas too heavy for a child's mind to handle or understand. This is not an excuse for such lacks, but an attempt to understand how it might arise in some people.
There was a case here recently of a young man who attacked a number of people with a knife. It turned out that he claimed to have wanted to kill people at the age of eight. Something, or someone, may have harmed him in some way prior to his developing such an idea. Of course, it might also be possible that he saw actors on television 'killing' others, but the intensity of his emotions, which remained until early adulthood, has to have some kind of explanation to induce him to attack others who perhaps symbolized for him his earlier harm. I'm not a psychologist, but a student of the nervous system, and I can understand that some memories have an enormous persistence in the mind, conscious or subconscious. So many people grow up and become adults who never reflect on their own thinkingor feelings, but accept whatever ego defenses arise for them. It is habitual and usual to not question oneself and one's own feelings and reactions to events, other people, or even ideas. For some people it could mean death of one's own sense of self, the ego, in such a conflict.
I might add, too, that social norms and influences play a large role as well. Here in the US we have so many people owning guns, and this is permissible according to the law, even. If there were no guns or knives or any other lethal weapons available, perhaps we would have a much lower murder rate. More arguments, maybe, but far fewer deaths.
We, as individuals, cannot correct the social, cultural, and econmic problems of our societies, but understanding them and their causes could go some distance toward solving them - I hope. It would take a lot of people to understand these issues, and a lot more to eventually resolve them - a massive series of changes are required. Sorry to sound so pessimistic at times.
Adele
I think your answers are the best. The lack of ability to identify with other people (lack of empathy) must arise in some early childhood experience such as physical and emotional abuse, isolation from others, and other traumas too heavy for a child's mind to handle or understand. This is not an excuse for such lacks, but an attempt to understand how it might arise in some people.
There was a case here recently of a young man who attacked a number of people with a knife. It turned out that he claimed to have wanted to kill people at the age of eight. Something, or someone, may have harmed him in some way prior to his developing such an idea. Of course, it might also be possible that he saw actors on television 'killing' others, but the intensity of his emotions, which remained until early adulthood, has to have some kind of explanation to induce him to attack others who perhaps symbolized for him his earlier harm. I'm not a psychologist, but a student of the nervous system, and I can understand that some memories have an enormous persistence in the mind, conscious or subconscious. So many people grow up and become adults who never reflect on their own thinkingor feelings, but accept whatever ego defenses arise for them. It is habitual and usual to not question oneself and one's own feelings and reactions to events, other people, or even ideas. For some people it could mean death of one's own sense of self, the ego, in such a conflict.
I might add, too, that social norms and influences play a large role as well. Here in the US we have so many people owning guns, and this is permissible according to the law, even. If there were no guns or knives or any other lethal weapons available, perhaps we would have a much lower murder rate. More arguments, maybe, but far fewer deaths.
We, as individuals, cannot correct the social, cultural, and econmic problems of our societies, but understanding them and their causes could go some distance toward solving them - I hope. It would take a lot of people to understand these issues, and a lot more to eventually resolve them - a massive series of changes are required. Sorry to sound so pessimistic at times.
Adele