Sociopath Community

PalePeach said: 

Hot take: there is no such thing as an empath. Feeling empathy is the default. If you don't, that is the defining characteristic of a sociopath (or other social disorder: autism, etc) 

When someone refers to themselves as an empath I get the same feeling as when non-humans in sitcoms say "Ah yes, I also eat human food and feel human emotions."

I brought this up with a friend recently. Her take was that the term is almost exclusively used by people who have experienced trauma and have no sense of healthy boundaries, as a way to turn their psychology wounds into something that makes them special or magical. Honestly I can't disagree.

 I'm interested more in the structure of your post and the chosen words. "Hot take", an interesting slang used by Journalist. This is not really common... almost an old American slang.

The use of "take" again as a short word for takeaway message. Unique, casual and trendy.

BTW, I agree with the message.  empath is like saying everyone.

The entire idea of an “empath”has taken on this pseudoscientific definition when 9 times out of 10 the person should be classified as highly sensitive. And further probably a sufferer of C-ptsd/childhood trauma. 

Anabelle said: 

The entire idea of an “empath”has taken on this pseudoscientific definition when 9 times out of 10 the person should be classified as highly sensitive. And further probably a sufferer of C-ptsd/childhood trauma. 

That might be the colloquial sort of thought of what an "empath" is: someone almost uncontrollably linked to the emotions around them.  The baseline is typically of someone reasonably in tune with emotions of others, which means they are typically able to navigate human social situations with passable (i.e. "on the daily") ability.  In other words, it's something of the norm to be empathic -- to have empathy.  The whole argument of the OP is whether or not the normative behavior is worth labeling separately, or else we're making a special case of some sort.

It seems the entire exercise of this thread has been something of a Rorschach test, revealing more of what people think of "empaths" or empathy than normative behavior and categorization.  Or something.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯