"Extreme Female Mind" (Type E or Empathic). Is there such a disorder?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by visceral_instinct, Apr 28, 2009.

  1. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    I know I already started a thread about this ages back, but we didn't really get anywhere in it...

    I know the idea that a high systemic/low empathic mind is a male one while the high empathic/low systemic end of the continuum is female domain, is a huge oversimplification, I just called it that so people would get the idea...

    Is there such a disorder? Could there be such a thing as 'system blindness', where though someone would be extremely empathic and do very well at sensing people's emotions, they would have low to no ability to use reductive or systemic thinking?

    Is this even a legitimate concept? Are "systemic" and "empathic" really opposites?

    One theory is that the condition exists, but it isn't a problem because it's not maladaptive:

    Taken from Simon Baron Cohen's The Essential Difference

     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Williams Syndrome.
     
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  5. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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  7. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    My first thought was "archetypical blonde"

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    But I found this:
    http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/bl...-female-brain-ii-what-is-extreme-male-brain-w
     
  8. takandjive Killer Queen Registered Senior Member

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    I think it most certainly qualifies. Look at abused women. Isn't that the result of overempathizing when they're smart enough to clearly see they're better off alone?
     
  9. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Oli the issue with that is wether thats because its what girls are born with or because of how they are RAISED. You know, play house vs get cars ect
     
  10. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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  11. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    Good point. Hyper-empathics would surely be likely to put up with crap from people for fear of hurting their feelings.
     
  12. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    umm i hate to break it to you but men are less likly to seek help for abuse than women are and for the same reasons, shame, beliving its there own fault or they deserve it (ie low self esteme), fear (either for themselves, there children or pets), fear of not being belived or taken seriously ect

    Has nothing to do with a greater ability to empathise
     
  13. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    That was what struck me.
    I wouldn't have thought of paranoid schizophrenics as empathic.
    But a bit more reading (that'll teach me to skim!).
    Logicblind fits that better than systemblind.
    And possibly "too empathic", then you start "feeling" everything...
     
  14. takandjive Killer Queen Registered Senior Member

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    My parents worked very hard to give their three children a balance of objectivism/empathy and male/female exposure to stuff. I tend to say it boils down to nature: Neurologists say empathy has to do with mirror neurons. These li'l fuckers are activated when we initiate actions and when we watch those same actions in others. Mirror neurons explain why we recoil when seeing others in pain, or salivate when we see other people eating a gourmet meal. Some studies have found that women have more sensitive mirror neurons than men, and that this also explains increased empathy. I certainly see it in my own family - While my dad and brothers are more sensitive/empathic than most men, they're not as much so as my mother and me.
     
  15. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    that doesnt preclude the difference still being enviromental
     
  16. takandjive Killer Queen Registered Senior Member

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    No, but I think it at least points that biology has a role. Warning: I am not a brain expert.

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  17. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/apr/17/research.highereducation
     
  18. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    umm oil, how exactly does that prove anything?

    You think all babies are treated the same? they arnt, the proccess of sexual socialisation starts even BEFORE the child is born for the parents. Go up to a baby wraped in pink and say "whats HIS name?" and see how the parents react
     
  19. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    I did only use the term extreme female mind so people would get the idea...

    We are though a mixture of biology and social influence.

    I would like to know how pronounced sex differences would be if we approached them differently as a society. We do tend to enforce and exaggerate many differences between men and women.
     
  20. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    i highly doubt there would be much difference at all except for the ovious biological differences.
     
  21. takandjive Killer Queen Registered Senior Member

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    VI, you don't strike me as a stereotypical girl. What were your parents like when it came to enforcing gender roles?
     
  22. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    You don't think the italicised part means much?
     
  23. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    My mother didn't push me either way. She gave me lots of different types of toys, and let me take up whatever activities I wanted.

    I had a stepfather for a while, he wanted me to be more feminine and less inherently angry (though when I went through my phase of wearing a dress and putting my hair in two locks, he disapproved, saying I wasn't being myself but emulating a fictional character).

    In early adolescence, though, my mum had to actively teach me to be feminine. I used to talk with a low, gravelly monotone. I had to actually learn to use a normal intonation. Then there was the way I walked. A swinging, masculine loping motion, according to my mum...she had to bug me into unlearning that. She would actually give me lessons in how to walk like a female. I still have that rough loping motion, but my body is feminine enough now that I don't look male, at least with moderately tight clothes.

    And don't get me started on facial and leg hair...I utterly refused to get rid of either. She has finally given up trying to convince me to shave my legs or pull out facial hair. She used to, but it bugged the crap out of me. All women have it, so I don't see how I'm being unfeminine by refusing to get rid of it. I have better things to do with my life than rip out individual hairs one by one from my face.
     

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