H. Steven Moffic, MD, has an article in Psychiatric Times on what has been learned about autism spectrum disorders and use of the knowledge gained to enhance global communication. Moffic begins by citing an Aspie love story in the NY Times: Navigating Love and Autism: Couple Find Each Other and Seek Comfort in World of Asperger’s.

He informs and expands:

This is a story of two people in love—Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith—both of whom had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Disorder (or as those who have been diagnosed often fondly call themselves, “Aspies”). With the help of therapists and online forums, the couple slowly learns to understand the other and respond more appropriately.

In many ways, their relationship problems are on the same spectrum (albeit on the far end) as the problems of other relationships. Some degree of empathy is essential for all successful relationships, including our everyday work. Self-empathy is essential to understand oneself. Indeed, because we are social beings, the empathy of interpersonal intelligence may be our most important skill.

Despite our capacity for empathy, physiologically processed through the mirror neurons of our brain, this capacity varies among people and circumstances. A lack of empathy may be one of the causes of what seems like intractable global problems: groups of people having different historical and cultural values; religious fundamentalism versus religious reform; not quickly enough recognizing the brutality of such leaders as Hitler and Stalin; and not having enough concern for future problems like Global Warming. Can global empathy be increased and, if so, help save our world? http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog.../10168/2030709

Moffic also cites this article, http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/arti...ticleid=180155, which he describes as "... devoted to all the new knowledge and advances regarding autism spectrum disorders."

The rest of the article is about empathy and its enhancement. Empathy finds its way into many mental health discussions. Perhaps we need to make empathy a point of emphasis?