Part of the Casswiki article series Psychology
Empathy is being conscious of, or sensitive to, the emotions of another person or group of people.
Empathy entails a direct understanding of what another is experiencing, and having the capability to participate in that feeling along with the other person. Storytelling through any medium, books or movies, often relies on the empathy factor where the reader or viewer empathizes with the characters, for instance.
Empathy is not to be confused with sympathy, which is more to do with being able to imagine oneself in another’s position. A simple formula to distinguish the two could be that sympathy is ‘feeling for someone’ whereas empathy is “feeling as someone”.
It is perhaps the interplay of these two capabilities that act as a moral compass for humanity, and found expression in the biblical statement: “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you” (Matthew 7:12).
According to psychological studies, not all people have the capacity for empathy. One of the defining characteristics of psychopathy is the lack of empathy. Psychopaths often learn to mimic emotions, so that they seem empathic or sympathetic, but these displays are learned skills not spontaneous emotions. H. Cleckley’s book Mask of Sanity describes the disorder in more detail, and postulates that the numbers of psychopaths in the general population is far in excess of conventional estimates. The incidence of psychopathy is estimated at 2% of the population, with similar but less extreme disorders accounting for another 4-6%.
The notion of two different kinds of humans inhabiting this world is also found in Boris Mouravieff’s work where he classifies the two groups as “Pre-Adamic” and “Adamic” man. Mouravieff indicates that Pre-Adamic man does not have the possibility of possessing higher centers, whereas the Adamic man may develop these.
The idea of a duality in the population of Earth is also present throughout the Cassiopaean material. Observation readily reveals that the world at large does not seem to be operating with much empathy, but rather with the principals of division and ‘us versus them’. The FOTCM has extensively researched the nature of psychopathy as well as how it has manifested throughout history and is presently unfolding on the world stage.