Help Me to Understand Autistic Empathy. Jessica Harrison.
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Jessica Harrison is an Autistic Autism researcher, with an expertise in Autistic empathy. In this webinar, Jessica talks to us about what empathy actually is (and what it is not), what Autistic empathy might look like, and she examines the research evidence for the 'standard' view that Autistic people have an empathy deficit. By providing an alternative understanding of empathy, Jessica helps parents and professionals alike to reframe their understanding of their child's organically Autistic empathy.
I am hyperempathetic and often have trouble expressing it. It be EXHAUSTING.
I mean if someone is upset i don't give them a hug because if I'm upset I don't want a hug I wanna be left alone so thats what I do for other people who are upset
I would hug my cat only when I was upset as a child. There was one time I clearly had empathy somebody else was upset while I was a small child and what I did was I went and picked up my cat and brought her to them. I don't remember the details now but it was not interpreted as an empathetic or nice gesture. I must not have said anything but I assumed that the person who was upset would want to pet the cat and I was clearly feeling compassionate enough and trusted them enough to try and Loan my cat to them for this purpose. Edited to add, I remember now I think it was my grandmother who didn't like animals and so they were scoffing when I handed her the cat. I just remember feeling ashamed and Confused I went back to my room with the cat instead of being able to hug my grandmother what I think they wanted me to do
Person B can not read the emotions of Person A, therefore Person B has no empathy.
Person A can not read the emotions of Person B, therefore Person B has no empathy.
Neurotypical empathy: If it not fits within our narritive, we bully and ostracize
Sad but very often true.
NTs have group empathy. everyone in our group/state is cool/good, all others are dangerous/odd/evil
@@TheFpskiller exactly!
@@TheFpskiller yep. The Social Identity Theory. Very famous concept in social psychology. Do you know autistics naturally are better in understanding how human in general behave than neurotipicals? I got a great make mark in social psychology while doing my bachelor without actually study, I wondered why for years. Until I read a study about a year ago. Can't remember the names though 🤣
On a different level, scientists are also incredibly irresponsible in using terms that have both thier scientific meaning and a common language meaning. If you Tell people "Autistic people dont have Empathy" you are doing that based on a scientific concept of empathy, but the Listener is gonna use the common language sense of what it means to not have empathy and Images of killers and tortueres are gonna enter their mind... Even if all the empathy research was trustworthy and we really didn't have empathy in that sense(which we do😡), no research would ever justify that. That always irritates me when i read books about autism.
Think is autistic people do even within scientific terms do have empathy. There's 3 types of empathy: Affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and sympathy.
Sympathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes: How would I feel if i was in their situation?
Affective empathy is feeling someone else's emotions as your own: I feel what you are feeling.
Cognitive empathy is simply understanding what others are feeling: I understand how you are feeling.
Also, empathy is different to compassion (which she called sympathy but yeah)
Autistic people generally have affective empathy, and really high affective empathy at that. But, often autistic people have way less cognitive empathy with neurotypical people, and this goes both ways as neither understand eachother very well usually.
But yeah empathy is catching or understanding emotions, and/or what someone is going through. Not compassion.
seems like these researchrs lack a lot of empathy!
Thank you SO MUCH for this! I’m sharing it everywhere!!
Yes, my empathy is fine I think, if not just a bit odd. I was only allowed to watch old movies and read classic books and I learned a lot about social interaction in these ways. It worked up to a point but it didn't fly with my peers who did not understand that I was getting my social cues from incredibly outdated fiction oh my God. LOL. I got older I had to pay more attention to my peers in the wild and put down the books in order to keep up appearing neurotypical. I really was doing things like a Jane Goodall or a Robert sapolsky, doing field observations behavior of members of my own species in order to figure out how to make them recognize me as one of their own. It wasn't so much that I wanted to be like them but I wanted them to be able to recognize me. To take me into the troop to make me feel like I did belong. and somehow knew that they did not feel this way already and so I would employ cognitive strategies like everything.
It is very exhausting to truly enmeshed in an NT social group. With that time and energy spent on your special interest and a few high quality close friends, your life would be so rich and juicy. This is my trial and error tested experience. Now I have come to the point, I am proud of not involving any social group. The social rank position, the complicated weblike connection, none of it serves me to become a better person.
Thank you! I think this was the best explanation of the issue of autism and empathy I have ever heard. And I have heard - searched for - quite a lot! I will be spamming this video all over the place!
Best to talk to adults with autism.
Very interesting and eye opening. Thanks
thank you for your wonderful sharing, which expands my understanding about empathy to a higher level.
Thank you thank you merci beaucoup
I read Brewer et al. (2015), last week, I was pissed too. However, it made me thinking, what measures can we come up that actually measure how autistics express empathy and emotions. after being trained all these years to become a psychologist, a neurotipical psychologist (how to behave like a neurotipical to treat neurotipical). I have to use the measurement that measures neurotipical empathy to measure autistic empathy. as an autistic myself, i would never do those things, even I feel how others feel, so intense and overwhelming. That makes me sad.
Nowadays, if people ask me, how autistics communicate, I would answer "well, words are not that important, it is telepathic. It is called the autistic theory of mind, which neurotipicals don't have." Hahahaha 😆
At the end of the day, this is a problem of majority and minority. The reality is, there are just not that many autistics become psychologists. We need more autistic brain power, come together, and get it done. Sadly, when I looked back the intro for my Honours, it said something like "to be a successful applicant for this position, you need to have excellent communication skills (e.g. eye contact, active listening), interpersonal skills......".....
What a joke....
Thank you so much, I will be sharing this with my therapist, friends and family.
💜
boy that was hard, I really struggled - I I wished you'd dais just once something positive, - not in the sense of positive thinking but give an example what you think empathy in Autistic people may look like differently
colloquially put I felt you were going round the houses in double-negatives. Is that what psychology researching has taught you to do? dig deeper, look at questions of meaning and purpose, would be my suggestion/wish
... colloquially put I felt you went round the houses with double-negatives