The Pitters' Place

http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavio ... or-a-curse" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is about a doctor who has mirror-touch synesthesia, which is basically a condition where you can feel what you sense other people feel. So if you see someone get punched on the cheek, you feel it too. If you see someone get stabbed in the chest, you feel a sharp pain there too. If you sense someone is angry or depressed, you get angry or depressed too. It varies among different people - this guy usually only feels a pale shadow of what other people feel, like a pinch or a tickle, while on the other hand one woman actually passed out because she saw someone get punched - but in all cases it's basically a form of super-empathy. A good quality to have for a doctor... or anyone.

Ever since I found this condition I wish everyone had it to a mild extent. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone actually felt a bit of what other people felt, instead of merely imagining what other people feel. As of now though it's probably mostly a curse. But it's a curse in the same general sense as, say, hyperthymesia or savant syndrome might be. Meaning that they might make everyday life unpleasant and difficult, but they also grant some profound intellectual advantages in certain areas. I have always thought empathy should be seen as more of a cognitive advantage rather than a mere personality variable. It's a means of acquiring knowledge of other peoples' feelings and emotions, which are objective parts of the world like everything else we can gain knowledge of. So if you a high amount of empathy, you have an ability to gain knowledge of certain states of the world which other people simply can't. It's another form of intelligence, and it's just as legitimate as a standard IQ. Just as people with high IQs can do advanced mathematics which other people can't (a form of knowledge acquisition unavailable to most), people with high EQs can gain access to other peoples' feelings which other people can't (which is yet another form of knowledge acquisition). And people who can't represent other people's thoughts adequately (what are commonly called sociopaths) are just as intellectually disabled as people with severely low IQ. I think, as far as they go, EQ is far more important than IQ as they are commonly viewed, although obviously it would be best to have a good amount of both.

So this condition can be seen as both a curse and a superpower at the same time. Nevertheless, with all its complications and drawbacks, if there was some way to somehow distribute something through the air which could cause all people to have it, I would do it in a heartbeat.

that'd be super fucked up if everyone had it. imagine the scene of a car accident, or an epidemic that isn't actually the fault of humans.

I mean, I can imagine this sort of thing would be 'useful' in stopping people being cruel and violent towards one another, but all the accidental injuries and general sensing of feeling would make it really difficult to concentrate on a day to day basis.

With great power comes great responsibility, and all that.

Definitely a curse.

The article described that most people with mirror-touch synesthesia find it more debilitating than helpful.
Even for a doctor, it's difficult. How do you know if you are sick when you feel pain?
I guess it's as much a disability as the condition where people can't feel pain.

Blade Azaezel wrote:that'd be super fucked up if everyone had it. imagine the scene of a car accident, or an epidemic that isn't actually the fault of humans.

I mean, I can imagine this sort of thing would be 'useful' in stopping people being cruel and violent towards one another, but all the accidental injuries and general sensing of feeling would make it really difficult to concentrate on a day to day basis.

I figure if everyone had it, then there'd be more of a collective effort to stop car accidents and epidemics and other things like that, so it'd balance itself out.

It would be best if empathy was under control. Like we could turn it very low in everyday life so we can concentrate on different things, but turn it up when circumstances require. But then maybe everyone would just choose to keep it low even when they shouldn't. I don't know. Nevertheless I think it's possible to live reasonably well while still being far more in-tune with other people's subjective states than we are now.

phe_de wrote:Definitely a curse.

The article described that most people with mirror-touch synesthesia find it more debilitating than helpful.
Even for a doctor, it's difficult. How do you know if you are sick when you feel pain?
I guess it's as much a disability as the condition where people can't feel pain.

The article describes how the condition probably makes him better at his job. He also seems able to adapt to it fairly well so it doesn't disrupt his life too much. In his case it doesn't seem too debilitating to me.

Most people are perfectly capable of feeling empathy towards others they can see suffering. It's our ability to ignore the suffering which is not immediately presented to us that's a problem. Mirror-touch synesthesia won't help with that.

On a side note, I get an uncomfortable twinge in my taint when I see people fall on rough, hard surfaces, like concrete.

Ptolemy_Banana wrote:uncomfortable twinge in my taint

I'm going to put this on my headstone.

sikax wrote:

Ptolemy_Banana wrote:uncomfortable twinge in my taint

I'm going to put this on my headstone.

Excellent. People will think that's what killed you.

If you sense someone is angry or depressed, you get angry or depressed too.

...wait, I have that. Which is why I'd start freaking out if I walked past a classroom where a teacher was yelling at the students, and I'd be sad and guilty and jittery for a long time even though they didn't even know who I was or that I was there let alone were targetting me. Or if I'm having a meal and a couple is arguing at a nearby table I end up getting overly emotionally tied up with what each of the parties is feeling and I can't enjoy my food.

And unfortunately it's also why I keep inadvertently empathising with horrible people who are feeling sad and wanting desperately to make them feel better, even if the sadness is about something stupid and they are still horrible people.

I don't have the touch thing, but I have confirmed synesthesia in other areas (grapheme-colour & sound-colour), so maybe they're related, idk. But my EQ scored abnormally, out-of-range low the last time I took one of those dodgy online test things.

Anakin McFly wrote:

If you sense someone is angry or depressed, you get angry or depressed too.

...wait, I have that. Which is why I'd start freaking out if I walked past a classroom where a teacher was yelling at the students, and I'd be sad and guilty and jittery for a long time even though they didn't even know who I was or that I was there let alone were targetting me. Or if I'm having a meal and a couple is arguing at a nearby table I end up getting overly emotionally tied up with what each of the parties is feeling and I can't enjoy my food.

And unfortunately it's also why I keep inadvertently empathising with horrible people who are feeling sad and wanting desperately to make them feel better, even if the sadness is about something stupid and they are still horrible people.

I don't have the touch thing, but I have confirmed synesthesia in other areas (grapheme-colour & sound-colour), so maybe they're related, idk. But my EQ scored abnormally, out-of-range low the last time I took one of those dodgy online test things.

Me too. I was talking to someone about it the other day, I'm basically a feelings-sponge because why stop at having too many feelings of your own when you can have too much of other people's feelings. Other people's anxiety gives me panic attacks and I feel other people's sadness very acutely. I am over-sensitive and have always been over-sensitive and people tell me I'm over-sensitive all the time. So it goes.

Or maybe I am just a raging narcissist who makes everyone else's feelings All About Me. This is also very likely.

I worked far too hard, for far too long, to become dead inside. I don't want to be a feelings-sponge.

Ptolemy_Banana wrote:

sikax wrote:

Ptolemy_Banana wrote:uncomfortable twinge in my taint

I'm going to put this on my headstone.

Excellent. People will think that's what killed you.

Nah. It's his nickname.

UTIMT for short.