Sociopath Community

So he's empathizing with the hypothetical reaction of his mother to his own death.

Yes.

Does that mean he is also grieving over himself?

In a way, Yes. It is entirely possible to grieve over fictitious scenarios if they are perceived (even temporarily) as real. In effect he is taking on the emotions of his mother (grief for him) and experiencing them subjectively. That is Affective Empathy.

or can he feel her general sadness without feeling her grief?

Yes to both. It basically comes down to how he perceives the event. To an individual subjective perception is reality, regardless of whether or not is based on the actual true reality. To that end what he believes she feels is in his reality what she feels. This is how we make all of our judgements in life, based on our perception of reality.

since it'd be hard to grieve over one's self?

It isn't hard to grieve over yourself, if you're experiencing that perception through someone elses perspective. Just like when you get really caught up in an actors plot on TV, you experience reality through their perspective. That too is affective empathy.

by Luna Prey

So it sounds like they CAN feel it if they want.. but generally, it's not their first go-to thing to do after they observer or learn about something.

So perhaps your dog dies. Your first thought can be to empathize about the dog, or you can choose to look foward to no more dog hair. 

It makes perfect sense, and it might also mean that sociopathy can be learned. I think it could also be argued, then, that it's pretty much... a mindset. A way of looking at things.

 

I have imagined my mom dying in several different ways and nothing strikes any emotions in me. But when I think about how someone would react to me dieing. Say they were to fall to there knees screaming. Its like im mourning my own death.

Quoting the wiki (because I'm lazy and this isn't a school paper)

You are aware that I could go into that Wiki and make it say whatever the fuck I want it to say right? You're basically basing your entire theory on someone that was posted by some random guy on the net, with no valid checks and balances. Turncoat, you're smarter than that.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427869/ That's the peered article the wiki is referencing.

And it should be noted that it's using dated theories (the peer reviewed article was written in 2011).

Even beyond that the measures used in that study does not negate any of the more recent studies conducted. The fact is, the people in that article are working on the belief that psychopaths have that region of the brain permanently inhibited as if they had damage to the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and/or temporal poles. This is no longer the case.

I use my mom as a example because she is the only person I am remotely close to. The one fear I do have about her dying, is that when it happens. I will be obligated to go to the funeral. And I don't know if i'm going to be able to show the kind of emotion I'm supposed to have in that situation. I fear everyone will see me for whom I really am. I will have to find a excuse to not go.

"You are aware that I could go into that Wiki and make it say whatever the fuck I want it to say right?"

Yes, and then I would have noticed how much it didn't match what I'd studied prior.


"You're basically basing your entire theory on someone that was posted by some random guy on the net, with novalid checks and balances. Turncoat, you're smarter than that."

...I chose to quote it because I'd read it elsewhere. I am not digging out a textbook or old notes to say essentially the same thing.

Your theory is still being debated, and you act like it's fact instead of possibility. I posted that merely as another view.

Yeah, and the theory of evolution is still being debated by moronic christians that believe in creationism? What does this mean? the world abounds with stupid people!

Fair enough, but I'll still carry my share of doubt for now, even if that means you lumping me with those things.

I still think it's interesting at least.