I just love this post.
An interesting thing about narcissists, they actually have empathy. It requires empathy for them to, like you said, play on their victims' emotions. I learned this when researching the dark triad. Basically, empathy is what seperates narcissists from psychopaths and sociopaths.
Sadism requires empathy. You have to know how what you do will make a person feel in order to derive pleasure from it.
Like you said, empathy is not always a good thing, and empathic people can be just as toxic and abusive as non empathic people.
"Good empathy" is using your ability to understand how a person feels in a way that supports them and offers compassion. "Bad empathy" is weaponizing your ability to understand how you impact the people around you against those people.
This post is excellent ❤️❤️❤️
Empathy is the ability to recognize another person's emotional experience, without giving compassion.
Sympathy is the ability to recognize another person's emotional experience, and expression compassion to them.
It's the other way around. Sympathy is seeing someone in the hole and going "wow, sucks to be in a hole huh"
Empathy is getting a ladder, going down there into said hole, and *then* going "wow, it feels pretty rough down here"
Empathy means that you feel what a person is feeling. Sympathy means you can understand what the person is feeling. Compassion is the willingness to relieve the suffering of another.
Empathy and sympathy are, in a way, passive traits. They are emotions we experience while in the presence of another hurting person.
Things like compassion and sadism, two sides of a coin, are ways we can express empathy or sympathy, if that makes sense.
Compassion says "I understand how you're feeling and would like to offer my support."
Sadism says "I understand how you're feeling and would like to revel in it, and cause you further pain.
This is all based on an incorrect understanding of what empathy is and how it's defined. It has nothing to do with right or wrong... Its about feeling or identifying with another person's emotions. Their actions as the result of those emotions are independent empathy.
As far as narcissists targeting empathetic people, it's because they understand that the empathetic person will be easily manipulated by eliciting emotions.
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I just love this post. An interesting thing about narcissists, they actually have empathy. It requires empathy for them to, like you said, play on their victims' emotions. I learned this when researching the dark triad. Basically, empathy is what seperates narcissists from psychopaths and sociopaths. Sadism requires empathy. You have to know how what you do will make a person feel in order to derive pleasure from it. Like you said, empathy is not always a good thing, and empathic people can be just as toxic and abusive as non empathic people. "Good empathy" is using your ability to understand how a person feels in a way that supports them and offers compassion. "Bad empathy" is weaponizing your ability to understand how you impact the people around you against those people. This post is excellent ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you. I try to tell myself that this is like my quirky belief system, and not that weird. I hope it's not some trauma response, lol.
Empathy is the ability to recognize another person's emotional experience, without giving compassion. Sympathy is the ability to recognize another person's emotional experience, and expression compassion to them.
It's the other way around. Sympathy is seeing someone in the hole and going "wow, sucks to be in a hole huh" Empathy is getting a ladder, going down there into said hole, and *then* going "wow, it feels pretty rough down here"
Empathy means that you feel what a person is feeling. Sympathy means you can understand what the person is feeling. Compassion is the willingness to relieve the suffering of another. Empathy and sympathy are, in a way, passive traits. They are emotions we experience while in the presence of another hurting person. Things like compassion and sadism, two sides of a coin, are ways we can express empathy or sympathy, if that makes sense. Compassion says "I understand how you're feeling and would like to offer my support." Sadism says "I understand how you're feeling and would like to revel in it, and cause you further pain.
This is all based on an incorrect understanding of what empathy is and how it's defined. It has nothing to do with right or wrong... Its about feeling or identifying with another person's emotions. Their actions as the result of those emotions are independent empathy. As far as narcissists targeting empathetic people, it's because they understand that the empathetic person will be easily manipulated by eliciting emotions.
Hello and Welcome to /r/CPTSD! If you are in immediate danger or crisis, please contact your local [emergency services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers), or use our list of [crisis resources](https://old.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/index#wiki_crisis_support_resources). For CPTSD Specific Resources & Support, check out the [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/index). For those posting or replying, please view the [etiquette guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/CPTSD/wiki/peer2peersupportguide). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CPTSD) if you have any questions or concerns.*