"Empathy can be used for a bad purpose"
Do an interview series on this.
Simon-Baron Cohen
George Lakoff
Lori Gruen
Response
Empathy thrives on openness and transparency. We need to to be empathic, to feeling into each others felt expereince. When people hide their intentions they are blocking empathy.
Create a story of the used care salesman being manipulative and hiding his intention and fear. He feels the world is a dog each dog world, for example.
What about the torturer who is clear about his intention to use pain and torture to get information? This is about power over and not power with.
The fallacy of empathy's dark side.
"Empathy can be used for a bad purpose" Alan Alda
his book has a whole chapter on the Dark Empathy.
Bully - reading their emotions
Interrogators
Torturer -
Sales people using empathy to manipulate.
Empathy can be used for a bad purpose: Franz De Waal
Interrogators
Torturer -
Used Car Salesman
Narcissist will use empathy to bad ends
Narcissist can read the emotions of others, see their weakness and exploit their weakness
Sociopaths will use it to bad ends
Teaching sociopaths and psychopaths empathy will make them better manipulators.
"Many practitioners who work with antisocial and sociopathic clients propose that psychotherapy (with all its empathic responding and emotional education components) is not only ineffective but can actually be dangerous (Samenow, 2002)."
Psychopaths will use it to bad ends
Psychopaths can read the emotions of others, see their weakness and exploit their weakness
"In therapy, true sociopaths will increase their cognitive empathy and hence be more socially savvy and more able to manipulate others. This creates the possibility for a kind of Machiavellian cognitive empathy (Andrew et al., 2008) that can be used to harm and manipulate others."
The Light and Dark Side of Empathy
Where do your motivations and intentions to empathize come from?
Lidewij Niezink, Ph.D., and Katherine Train, Ph.D.
Say Empathy is neutral
(has a positive effect since it raises oxytocin levels.
What is the intension?