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Secret Intelligence Service
Unit
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The Art of Spying II
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Seminar : 10 02 2020. Harrogate
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EMPATHY vs LACK OF EMPATHY (DESIRED)
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‘During the learning process, participant Ms. **** ********** revealed outstanding intelligence, phenomenal memory, incredible performance.
She is dominant, domineering, with pronounced leadership traits. In the behaviour there is an unconditional orientation to success.
She has a taste for risk and making adventurous decisions. The style of action is characterised by assertiveness and rationality.
She thinks on a large scale; in solving problems she knows how to single out the main thing, has a rich imagination.
She is convincing in discussions and easily imposes her point of view on the opponent.
She owns acting skills, is able to make any impression.
In being venturing, she can behave with restraint and caution.
She is demanding on herself, self-critical.
>>> Disadvantages : she strongly attaches to people, she is prone to empathy. *********************
Conclusion
Ms. **** ********** is completely reliable. On political and special training, on personal and business qualities, she can be sent to ************* conduct clandestine work.
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What is Empathy and/or lack of it. How to avoid it
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Note : It is possible (and desirable) that one actually can present as being empathetic for reasons of cover, assimilation, manipulation of the other party/s and so on, but while one is consciously NOT EMPATHETIC AT ALL.
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EMPATHY : ‘Empatheia’, meaning physical affection and/or passion
Empathy is defined as the capacity to understand and/or to feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference. This being the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of emotional states. Types of empathy include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and somatic empathy.
Compassion and sympathy are terms associated with empathy. Compassion is often defined as an emotion one feels when others are in need, which motivates one to help them. Sympathy is a feeling of care and understanding for someone in need.
Empathy is distinct from pity and emotional contagion. Pity is a feeling that one feels towards others that might be in trouble or in need of help as they cannot fix their problems themselves, often described as ‘feeling sorry’ for someone. Emotional contagion is when a person imitatively ‘catches’ the emotions that others are showing without necessarily recognising this is happening.
Since empathy involves understanding the emotional states of other people, the way it is characterised is derived from the way emotions themselves are characterised.
Empathy has also been compared with altruism and egotism.
Altruism is behaviour that is aimed at benefitting another person,
Egotism is a behaviour that is acted out for personal gain.
Often when someone is feeling empathetic towards another person, acts of altruism occur. However, many question whether or not these acts of altruism are motivated by egotistical gains.
Affective Empathy
Affective empathy, also called ’emotional empathy’ : the capacity to respond with an appropriate emotion to another’s mental states.
Affective empathy can be subdivided into the following scales :
Empathic concern : sympathy and compassion for others in response to their suffering.
Personal distress : self-centered feelings of discomfort and anxiety in response to another’s suffering.
Cognitive Empathy
Cognitive empathy : the capacity to understand another’s perspective or mental state. The terms ‘cognitive empathy’ and ‘mentalising’ are often used synonymously, but due to a lack of studies comparing mentalising with types of empathy, it is unclear whether these are equivalent.
Note : Affective and cognitive empathy are independent from one another; someone who strongly empathises emotionally is not necessarily good in understanding another’s perspective.
Cognitive empathy can be subdivided hence :Perspective-taking : the tendency to spontaneously adopt others’ psychological perspectives.
Fantasy : the tendency to identify with fictional characters.
Tactical (strategic) empathy : the deliberate use of perspective-taking to achieve certain desired ends.
Somatic Empathy
Somatic empathy is a physical reaction, based on mirror neuron responses, in the somatic nervous system.
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Literature commonly indicates that females tend to have more cognitive empathy than male counterparts. Reviews, meta-analysis and studies of physiological measures, behavioural tests, and brain neuro-imaging, however, have revealed mixed findings.
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The capacity to empathise is a revered trait in society.
Empathy is considered a motivating factor for unselfish, prosocial behaviour,
>>>whereas a lack of empathy (desired) is related to antisocial behaviour.<<<
Proper empathic engagement is said to help an individual understand and anticipate the behaviour of another. Apart from the automatic tendency to recognise the emotions of others, one may also deliberately engage in empathic reasoning.
Two general methods have been identified :
An individual may simulate fictitious versions of the beliefs, desires, character traits and context of another individual to see what emotional feelings it provokes.
Or, an individual may simulate an emotional feeling and then access the environment for a suitable reason for the emotional feeling to be appropriate for that specific environment.
Certain research suggests that people are more able and willing to empathise with those most similar to themselves. In particular, empathy increases with similarities in culture and living conditions. Empathy is more likely to occur between individuals whose interaction is more frequent.
A measure of how well a person can infer the specific content of another person’s thoughts and feelings has been developed by psychologist William Ickes. In 2010, team led by Grit Hein and Tania Singer gave two groups of men wristbands according to which football team they supported. Each participant received a mild electric shock, then watched another go through the same pain. When the wristbands matched, both brains flared: with pain, and empathic pain. If they supported opposing teams, the observer was found to have little empathy. Bloom calls improper use of empathy and social intelligence as a tool can lead to shortsighted actions and parochialism, he further defies conventional supportive research findings as gremlins from biased standards. He ascertains empathy as an exhaustive process that limits us in morality and if low empathy makes for bad people, bundled up in that supposed (so described) ‘unsavoury group’ would be many who have Asperger’s or autism.
>>> Early indicators for a LACK OF EMPATHY (desired) includes the following : <<<
Frequently finding oneself in prolonged arguments
Forming opinions early and defending them vigorously
Thinking that other people are overly sensitive
Refusing to listen to other points of view
Blaming others for mistakes
Not listening when spoken to
Holding grudges and having difficulty to forgive
Potential inability to work in a team?
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Seminar : 10 02 2020. Harrogate
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Secret Intelligence Service (C-I)
Unit
.
EMPATHY vs LACK OF EMPATHY (DESIRED)
.
Adversitate. Custodi. Per Verum