Reading people

sunrise · Jan 01, 2012, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankster

I miss TNG.

In TOS, there was that empath who gave her life for McCoy. She would touch him and take on his wounds and he became healed. I think the episode was even called "The Empath."

PreacherHeckler · Jan 01, 2012, 11:28 PM

Whenever I am tempted to believe that I know what people are feeling based on their appearance or behavior, I rely on a very simple method to remind me not to make those assumptions -- I remember a Peanuts cartoon where Linus drew a picture of a man or a boy, and Charlie Brown (I think) analyzed Linus' reasons for drawing the man with his hands in his pockets. After he thoroughly expressed his opinion that Linus was depicting insecurity because the man's hands were in his pockets, Linus said, "I drew him with his hands in his pockets because I myself can't draw hands!"
Usually, that's all it takes to end my assumptions.

unaluna · Jan 01, 2012, 11:47 PM

Ah, Linus! In my dehoarding, I refound my big postcard from over 30 years ago, where he proclaims, "There is no problem so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from!"

I gotta be ME!!! (singing smilie)

Chopin99 · Jan 02, 2012, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankster

well chopin as I recall you're "responsible" for this thread topic to begin with, so you have some company here!

I can tell stuff about my T, like if he is up or down or feeling jealous when I mention my crush, but as others have said, I get the best result and make the most progress when I just ask him what it's about, and try not to do a big end-zone celebration

I realized one of my threads spawned this one. I have a good "gut". I can usually read people well and am able to empathize with what they are feeling. T is saying that I shouldn't read so much into other people. She is saying by doing that I am making assumptions. However, the assumptions usually turn out to be right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by learning1

I thought empath meant somebody who can read other people's minds in a supernatural way and empathetic meant sensitivity and understanding of people's feelings, body language, etc without anything supernatural involved.

Some people say being an empath is a psychic ability. I'm not sure I believe that, but it is of note that my mother "knows" before someone in our family dies. She has a particular dream about them and they die within 1-2 days. So I don't know if some sort of psychic ability runs in the family. I just tell Mom if she has that dream about me to please not tell me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankster

Um, I thought to be an empath you had to be half-human, half-Betazoid. Or maybe it's the other way around. IF you are human/Betazoid, then you could combine your Betazoid telepathic powers with human sentience (per wikipedia) and extensive knowledge of psychology (Deanna Troi had a PhD) and read people's feelings.

I miss TNG.

Well, I am a hybrid...lol! I was never big into TNG, but I like the original and Enterprise.

sunflower321 · Jan 02, 2012, 12:02 AM

I think we are able to identify emotions in other people (with varying degrees of personal ability), but we can never know another person's thoughts until they tell us. Just knowing that a person is sad or frustrated or elated is only half the information; until they tell us their thoughts, we don't know the full story.

Chopin99 · Jan 02, 2012, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunflower321

I think we are able to identify emotions in other people (with varying degrees of personal ability), but we can never know another person's thoughts until they tell us. Just knowing that a person is sad or frustrated or elated is only half the information; until they tell us their thoughts, we don't know the full story.

Excellent point!

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