Are You Suffering From Empathy Deficit Disorder?

It's possible that you're among the large number of people who suffer from EDD. No, that isn't a typo, I don't mean ADD or ED. It's EDD, for "empathy deficit disorder."

I made it up, so you won't find it listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Normal variations of mood and temperament are increasingly redefined as new "disorders," so I'm hesitant to suggest a new one. But this one's real, and it's becoming more pronounced in today's world.

I've identified it from my decades of experience as a business psychologist, psychotherapist, and researcher into adult development. From that triple vantage point, I've concluded that empathy deficit disorder is a pervasive but overlooked condition. In fact, our increasingly polarized social and political culture of the past few years reveals that EDD is more severe than ever. It has profound consequences for the mental health of both individuals and society. Yet it's ignored as a psychological disturbance by most of my colleagues in the mental health professions.

First, some explanation of what I mean by EDD: When you suffer from it you're unable to step outside yourself and tune in to what other people experience, especially those who feel, think, and believe differently from yourself. That makes it a source of personal conflicts, communication breakdown in intimate relationships, and adversarial attitudes, including hatred, towards groups of people who differ in their beliefs, traditions, or ways of life from your own.

Take the man who told me that his wife always complained that he didn't spend enough time with their children; that she carried most of the burden despite having a career of her own. "Yeah, I see her point," he said in a neutral voice, "but I need time for my sports activities on the weekends. I'm not going to give that up. And at night I'm tired, I want to veg out." As we talked further, it became clear to me that he simply didn't experience what his wife's world was like for her, on the inside. His own reality, his own needs, were his only reality.

Or the computer executive who prided himself on having a stable family life, then casually told me that, even though he recognized the environmental threats posed by worldwide climate change, he couldn't care less. "I'll be long gone when New York is underwater," he said. And when I asked him whether he cared about the consequences for his kids or grandkids, he replied with a grin: "Hey, that's their problem."

Then there's the woman who works in the financial industry, who told me she's indifferent to how American Muslims might feel in today's environment, or to being profiled when boarding airplanes: "I think they're all terrorists," she said, "and would like to kill us all, anyway."

These may sound like extreme examples, but I continually hear variations of these themes. EDD keeps a person locked inside a self-centered world, and that breeds emotional isolation, disconnection, and polarization. That's highly dangerous in today's interconnected, globalized world, and it plays out in ways both small and large.

For example, you see it in troubled intimate relationships, when partners become locked into adversarial and oppositional positions. In warfare between groups with different beliefs, like the current polarization over political and social issues. And in current global threats: Tribal and religious groups killing each other, Palestinians and Israelis locked in a death grip. Not to mention looming worldwide disasters or continued depletion of the resources and health of the only planet we have.

Empathy vs. Sympathy

Empathy is different from sympathy. Sympathy reflects understanding another person's situation but viewed through your own lens. That is, it's based on your version of what the other person is dealing with. ("Yeah, I can sympathize with your problem with your elderly mother, because I have my own problems with mine.") The narcissist can be sympathetic in this way.

That self-centered focus is similar to what some people think love is when they're really enthralled with their own feelings of being "in love," rather than in love with the reality of who their partner is, as I wrote about in a previous post.

In contrast, empathy is what you feel only when you can step outside of yourself and enter the internal world of the other person. There, without abandoning or losing your own perspective, you can experience the other's emotions, conflicts, or aspirations from within the vantage point of that person's world. That's not telepathy; it's a hard-wired capacity in all of us, as I explain below. And that kind of connection builds healthy, mutual relationships—an essential part of mental health.

How Do You Develop EDD?

Most people are socially conditioned into believing that acquiring and achieving things are "normal," even "healthy," ways to live. EDD grows when people focus too much on acquiring power, status, and money for themselves. Nearly every day we hear or read about more extreme examples: People who go over the edge in their pursuit of money, power, or recognition and end up resigning their jobs, in rehab, or behind bars.

But many of the people I see every day, whether in psychotherapy or executive consulting, struggle with their own versions of the same thing through too much emphasis on acquiring, both things and people. That's going to promote vanity and self-importance. Then, you become increasingly alienated from your own heart and equate what you have with who you are.

And that's a killer for empathy because then you're ripe for the delusion that you're completely independent and self-sufficient. You lose touch with the true reality, that all humans are interconnected and interdependent. Your sense of being a part of the larger interwoven community, which is absolutely necessary for survival in today's world, fades away. And so does your awareness that we have to sink or swim together, help each other, and sustain the planet we inhabit, or else we're all in deep trouble.

Sometimes, a person's sudden awakening of interconnection jump-starts their empathy. At such times, people automatically respond from the heart. For example, look at the response of citizens to the massive earthquake in Haiti, or to Hurricane Katrina. Or what I witnessed recently when some passers-by stopped to help the victims of an auto accident.

When empathy is aroused, you let go of your usual attachment to yourself and you want to help and connect in some way. I often suggest to people to think of this as an example: When you cut your finger, you don't say, "That's my finger's problem, not mine." Nor do you do a cost-benefit analysis before deciding whether to take action. You respond immediately because you feel the pain. It's part of you.

Empathy Is Hard-Wired

Overcoming EDD is easier than you may think. In fact, considerable research shows that the capacity to feel what another person feels is "hard-wired" through what are called "mirror neurons." Functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) shows that regions of the brain involving both emotions and physical sensations light up in someone who observes or becomes aware of another person's pain or distress. Literally, you do feel another's pain or other emotions. Similar research shows that generosity and altruistic behavior light up pleasure centers of the brain usually associated with food or sex.

Just as you can develop EDD by too much self-absorption, you can also overcome EDD by "retraining" your brain. That is, research also shows that your brain is capable of being trained and physically modified through conscious practices.

This is known as neuroplasticity. You can "grow" specific emotions and create new brain patterns that reinforce them. As you redirect and refocus your thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the direction you desire, the brain regions associated with them are reinforced. What's more, changing your brain activity reinforces the changes you're making in your thoughts and emotions. The result is a self-reinforcing loop between your conscious attitudes, your behavior, and your brain activity.

Practices for Building Empathy

The writer Jeremy Rifkin's recent major book, The Empathic Civilization, provides a strong argument for an emerging empathic civilization in human consciousness. He presents evidence that counters the usual assumption that self-interest and greed are dominant forces among humans.

In light of all the new research, here are a few practices to help overcome your EDD in everyday life—whether with your intimate partner, friends, strangers, or enemies:

Empathy for Your Intimate Partner:

• Envision a characteristic or behavior of yours that you know your partner dislikes. Imagine shifting your consciousness into your partner's perspective and mentality, even though you may disagree with that perspective or are convinced it's "wrong."

• Immerse yourself in your partner's perceptions of you. Try to experience them fully. At the same time, hold on to your own views. Don't let either negate the other.

• Then, try to understand your partner's feelings or attitudes as a reflection of who he or she is, based on all the forces and influences and choices that have shaped him or her. Don't judge.

Empathy for Someone You Dislike:

It's especially challenging to generate empathy towards someone you flat-out dislike, maybe even hate. Or, with whom you've had big-time conflicts: perhaps an ex-spouse, or someone at work. But you can do it by extending the above practice.

• Tell yourself how or why that person might have developed negative attitudes or feelings about you. Imagine what the conflict feels like from within his or her perspective.

• Entertain the idea that you are only partially right; perhaps wrong altogether.

• Next, open yourself to seeing yourself through the eyes of that person. Just observe, without judging him or her, defending yourself, or agreeing with any of it.

Empathy for Strangers You Encounter:

You can expand your capacity for empathy by practicing it towards people you don't even know:

• Identify a situation or encounter with someone who's a stranger, especially one who may be very different from yourself. Try to put yourself within the consciousness of that stranger. The checkout person at the grocery store could be an example.

• Think of ways that he or she is probably like you, someone who desires love, who's probably experienced some kind of loss or disappointment along the way, or who has aspirations he or she hopes to fulfill.

• Focus on those commonalities that show you how this person is much like yourself

Empathy for People From Foreign Cultures or Whose Way of Life Is Alien to Your Own:

One way is to establish a direct personal connection with someone through a charity that links you with a specific recipient of your contribution or a microfinance organization that provides small business loans to specific individuals in developing countries who cannot otherwise qualify

Empathy Fuels Your Mental Health

From empathy, tolerance grows. Tolerance of differences is one of the most essential elements of psychological health. By developing empathy, you can deepen your understanding and acceptance of how and why people do what they do, and build greater respect for others.

This doesn't mean whitewashing the differences you have with other people or letting them walk over you. Rather, empathy gives you a stronger, wiser base for resolving conflicts when you have them. You're able to bridge differences more effectively and with less destructiveness.

And beyond that, empathy makes you mindful of your commonality and connection with fellow humans, people who suffer and struggle with life in many of the same ways you do. It trumps self-centered, knee-jerk reactions to surface differences like religion, race, or ideology. That's a path towards a healthy life and a healthy world.

©2010 Douglas LaBier