Write4U
Valued Senior Member
It does not make people necessarily evil or bad. It is a disability that prevents people from "identifying" with someone else's plight.If someone lacked empathy does that automatically make that person evil?
Do you not believe that people who lacked empathy can learn to empathize with others?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmpathyEmpathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position.[1] Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of emotional states. Types of empathy include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and somatic empathy.
IOW, empathy is truly profound ability which starts at an early age and often determines a person's choice in employment. Docters, nurses, caregivers in general usually are people with a well developed ability for empathy.
![220px-There%27s_no_crying_in_baseball%21_%284549295140%29_2.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/There%27s_no_crying_in_baseball%21_%284549295140%29_2.jpg/220px-There%27s_no_crying_in_baseball%21_%284549295140%29_2.jpg)
For a criminal this is not a problem as he doesn't care about the pain he inflicts on his victim. Inflicting pain might even become a game because the perpetrator is unable to "identify" with the pain of his victim and is amused by the victims pleas for merci.
AFAIK, most people have empathy in some respect, but a total lack of empathy is usually caused by some type of brain damage. Autism is a typical expression of inability to experience empathy without being an "evil" person.