>> Another example is people who are anxious prepare for things. So they're the one with emergency snacks, flashlight, tampons, and whatnot availible on an ordinary Tuesday. (And then your social circle catches on and tries hitting you up for everything from food to meds...) <<
>> Hm, an empath letting someone 'link up' to their brain as therapy would likely be the safest way to expose a personality-disordered person to missing emotions like compassion, guilt, or safety/trust. <<
Most effective, maybe, but not necessarily safe. It can be the record that breaks the record player.
>> I can just imagine someone with a dramatic personality disorder getting the tiniest bit of affective empathy or guilt and going completely off the rails if they don't have someone more experienced to help them regulate it.<<
And that's why it is not safe.
>> (Although knowing what I do about emotions and brain structure, the feelings would likely not be perceptible once the minds split apart - unless there is a power that alters the brain structure.) <<
This depends on the mechanism of lack and mechanism of conveying what is missing. If you have a biochemical lack and a superpower casting an emotional illusion, it will break the moment the empath lets go or gets distracted. But if the replacement is also biochemical (e.g. stimulating the body to produce certain hormones) then you have to wait for it to wear off. If what you have is an inability to understand an emotion, and that understanding is artificially added, then the change can be permanent, lik one of those visual puzzles where you can't see the rabbit until it's pointed out but then you can't stop seeing it.
>> Less positively, the power/spell could be either irritation ("Let's see how you like it!") or straight up self defense (the compassionate person shoves their conscience into an attacker, which leaves the attacker emotionally oversensitive and hyperventilating, but the victim numb and dismotivated).<<
Fire a compassion spell into an evil army and watch them all double over in mortal agony. Or fall on their swords in remorse. Or both.
>>And yeah, logical cognitive motivation is very different than emotional motivation, and while it is possible to sub in one for the other it can be pretty hard to turn on the alternate process, nevermind makeing it do what you want. Plus it doesn't seem to be a skill most people are skilled at, unless they do a lot of mind-and-emotion work.<<
The logical version is something that T-America teaches to people born without a conscience. They may not have the feeling of guilt, but can often still grasp logical framing like, "If you do not finish your homework, the whole group will fail the assignment and you will not get into that sport team you want" or "If one person steals, that encourages more people steal, then nobody's property will be safe and that will be awful for everyone."
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-01-12 03:32 am (UTC)That'd be Jeffery Kemp in "Constantly Tossed About" and "The Aftermath of Disaster."
>> Hm, an empath letting someone 'link up' to their brain as therapy would likely be the safest way to expose a personality-disordered person to missing emotions like compassion, guilt, or safety/trust. <<
Most effective, maybe, but not necessarily safe. It can be the record that breaks the record player.
>> I can just imagine someone with a dramatic personality disorder getting the tiniest bit of affective empathy or guilt and going completely off the rails if they don't have someone more experienced to help them regulate it.<<
And that's why it is not safe.
>> (Although knowing what I do about emotions and brain structure, the feelings would likely not be perceptible once the minds split apart - unless there is a power that alters the brain structure.) <<
This depends on the mechanism of lack and mechanism of conveying what is missing. If you have a biochemical lack and a superpower casting an emotional illusion, it will break the moment the empath lets go or gets distracted. But if the replacement is also biochemical (e.g. stimulating the body to produce certain hormones) then you have to wait for it to wear off. If what you have is an inability to understand an emotion, and that understanding is artificially added, then the change can be permanent, lik one of those visual puzzles where you can't see the rabbit until it's pointed out but then you can't stop seeing it.
>> Less positively, the power/spell could be either irritation ("Let's see how you like it!") or straight up self defense (the compassionate person shoves their conscience into an attacker, which leaves the attacker emotionally oversensitive and hyperventilating, but the victim numb and dismotivated).<<
Fire a compassion spell into an evil army and watch them all double over in mortal agony. Or fall on their swords in remorse. Or both.
>>And yeah, logical cognitive motivation is very different than emotional motivation, and while it is possible to sub in one for the other it can be pretty hard to turn on the alternate process, nevermind makeing it do what you want. Plus it doesn't seem to be a skill most people are skilled at, unless they do a lot of mind-and-emotion work.<<
The logical version is something that T-America teaches to people born without a conscience. They may not have the feeling of guilt, but can often still grasp logical framing like, "If you do not finish your homework, the whole group will fail the assignment and you will not get into that sport team you want" or "If one person steals, that encourages more people steal, then nobody's property will be safe and that will be awful for everyone."