In 2006, former President Obama used the phrase "EMPATHY DEFICIT". I interpret this phrase to mean a turning away from considering other people’s hurt or distress.
EMPATHY requires You put the 'I" in You aside for the other person. EMPATHY asks You to deny Your “I” and focus on someone else. In other words, EMPATHY asks You to deny Your selfish inclinations.
I believe EMPATHY is an ideal or something You hope happens perfectly with effort. But as an ideal, You never perfectly nail EMPATHY down everyday in Your life.
As such, You will sometimes have EMPATHY for others. But at other times You will act with Your “EMPATHY DEFICIT” and not consider other people’s needs or feelings. Therefore, former President Obama’s use of the phrase “EMPATHY DEFICIT”, I believe requires YOU practice EMPATHY as much as daily possible.
I read my sister’s long response and felt lost among all those words. Look, before I lost my apartment and injured my hand on the job, I had my own place where friends and family crashed some nights. They crashed at my apartment because they had no place to go for the night. I was their last hope or the streets.
I allowed them to crash with me because I felt one day I could be in their position. On that day, I hope one of my friends or family would volunteer to offer me a place to stay (lost my apartment and presently living with family, go figure).
Is this EMPATHY? I guess so. But to me, it is just plain COMMON SENSE. You know that GIVE and TAKE we operate by in our relationships with other people. I don’t know about the stepping into another person’s shoes. What I do know is if someone is hungry and I have extra food I will feed them.
My sister is bugging out with her college descriptions on EMPATHY and “EMPATHY DEFICIT”. What she needs to say is to show EMPATHY use YOUR COMMON SENSE. And if YOU don’t have COMMON SENSE then that is the DEFICIT right there.
