My understanding is that empathy means to feel what another person is feeling while sympathy is the ability to understand what another is feeling. Here are two definitions from the web: Definition 1: “Both empathy and sympathy are feelings concerning other people. Sympathy is literally ‘feeling with’ – compassion for or commiseration with another person. […]
Mom made me Halloween outfits. I don’t have a picture of the one where I was a bum, or maybe it was a clown. Yeah, it must have been a clown, since I had a switch in my pocket that would make my nose light up. Maybe I was a rummy. Who knows? One year […]
[Note: I’ll be taking a little break from the heavy topics I’ve been discussing for the past few days (Death, Uncertainty, Questions of Faith). Don’t worry though, I will be back with more heaviosity soon enough. Thank you all for reading!] Sometimes Mom just had enough. Typically she’d had it with Dad. Too many pictures, […]
Faith is a complete trust in someone or something without requiring proof. Infants have complete trust by dint of the actions of their parents. No baby wonders whether he or she will be fed, under normal conditions. It just happens, no proof needed. Is being fed, in the world of a baby equivalent to the […]
Not thinking too clearly today. Last night another person I was acquainted with died. Yesterday I mentioned that a former colleague of mine took his own life, even though he was a religious person. The idea of death itself isn’t on my mind as much as the changing landscape that accompanies it. The fact that […]
Over the past few days and weeks, end-of-life issues have surrounded me. A wonderful blogger friend of mine is having problems; on my wife’s side of the family, several of her relatives are gravely ill and not expected to live very long; a former colleague of mine took his own life just a few days […]
My interest in the brain arises from having a brother who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. For the longest time I wanted to understand what the brain does and why my brother is the way he is. Today’s post and yesterday’s post focus on an effort from 1934 to define what thought is and […]
Yesterday, my post was about language and thought. My interest in this topic stems from trying to communicate with my older brother who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. It is a mystery to me what, if anything, he is thinking. Today’s post is a first look at an attempt to explain thought, from many […]
This is a huge topic. I hope to investigate this realm and relate my findings to a long-standing issue of mine: communication with my older brother who is low functioning, autistic and nonverbal. Those of you who follow my posts know that I am probably obsessed with the idea of communicating with Mike. In some […]
Today I pigged out at the bookstore. I have given a lot of thought to the idea of communication and language in my attempt to understand the gulf between my autistic, profoundly retarded, nonverbal brother and me. In yesterday’s post I reviewed the basic components of communications systems – without regard to the content of […]
