A Cambridge professor, Simon Baron-Cohen, has written Zero Degrees of Empathy: A new theory of human cruelty. In this review, the author explains the professor’s ideas.
Read Why a lack of empathy is the root of all evil, on Independent.co.uk.
Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.
hens
This is very thought provoking. Lot’s of good comment’s. Sarah999 and Kim I think the way you do about what makes them tick. There are people in my life that make the hair stand up on the back of my neck, I can sense something dangerous about them. I call them Evil and stay away.
Ana
Oxy,
Yes, that book “The Hiding Place” is next on my list. I’m still going back over the Frankl book. I don’t want it to end!
I’m with you about being bitter and angry and hostile! I don’t want to be that way either. It’s exhausting to me emotionally, I can’t handle it, plum wears me out. So, I’m gonna keep working toward peace too.
Glad you will get the book. I bet you see yourself in the main character….lol and you will LOVE her!
Ox Drover
Ana, I ordered the book…thanks, can’t wait to read it.
I agree with you Henry, we must be alert to the evil, but we don’t have to become like it in order to avoid it….there are times we can’t escape it and we must face it, but we don’t have to let it penetrate our souls and make us like it—dark and ugly. It takes work, but we can over come the “slime” as Skylar says. The difference is that some people wallow in it. I don’t want to do that.
Ox Drover
Ana we posted over each other….the SPIRIT, the loving kindness of Carrie ten Boom just made me want to weep…and to be like her. Frankl as well. What a wonderful spirit of compassion and kindness and how much more wonderful is that than the bitterness of dwelling on the meanness of others.
Our natural human tendency when we are injured is to be angry, and if anger is FED it festers into bitterness, so some how we must face that injury, that anger and turn it into acceptance and compassion, even for those that are evil. We don’t have to approve of them, we must HATE THE EVIL, but not let it turn our hearts and souls to darkness.
It is like “the Force”—there is a dark side and a light side, and we don’t want to be overcome by the darkness.
Duct tape is the same way, there is a dark side and a light side and it holds the world together!
MissLed
Hi all,
Ever since I’ve come out of this nightmare with the NS, I find myslef addicted to watching real crime detective stories such as ‘Another 48 Hours’, ‘Dateline on ID’, ‘Sins and Secrets’, and ‘Nothing Personal’ on ID just to name a few. Am I the Only one doing this???
I feel like I’m prepping myself so I don’t fall into the trap once again. Full of Psychopaths and, most cases, deadly ending for the victims.
So much for Rachael Ray, she’s too nice and normal. ;o)
Hhhhhmmmm…..think there may be a problem here…? Am I addicted to chaos?? Or maybe trying too hard to avoid unwelcome predators in the future??
Hopefully the latter.
hens
I never wallowed in drama and chaos, I just tried to fix everybody else’s. My happeness depended on theirs. Spent most of my life kissin somebody’s arse too make them happy so I could be happy….I am glad I have that dysfunction of mine rectified !
MissLed
That’s funny hen, because I think I was doing the exact same thing with S and His chaos and baggage. ‘Oh, that’s okay, no problem…'< I was always agreeable and easy to get along with. He supplied the chaos and I scampered to fix things, make happy.
The un-doing of me in the end eventually. Now I'm working on my happiness for a change.
MissLed
I think sometimes I watch those shows for varification of what I went through does actually exists and happens to others. So saying, yes MissLed, you are not the crazy one.
Also, at times I wonder if his photo will pop up and they say, ‘this man had many identities and hoodwinked a line of women….’ and then they send him off to prison for being a repeat offender. Lol!
hens
Hi Missled. I did that also, but I think it’s all about identifying with the new words in our vocabulary -sociopath – physcopath – narcospath – when we hear somebody else use those terms – on tv or in person we chime in like spathdar…eventually we figure out they have been around forever and are not goiing away – they are everywhere just waiting for a target..I do think we develop a new sense of awareness – self protection…nothing wrong with being smarter. I would hope with time your obsession with the subject will lesson as mine has…life goes on.
Recovering
MissLead, Ha! I am laughing at your comment about your S photo, I have been thinking the same thing all week. To me, it IS a crime!