Posted by deirdrehbrt on August 20, 2004, at 11:52:04
In reply to Help! Friend thinks she can feel other's pain, posted by fallingstar on August 20, 2004, at 0:51:21
FallingStar,
I feel for you. What a difficult situation, both for you and your friend.
It makes sense to me that someone with a terminal illness might be so sensitive; maybe in feeling others' pain, they are allowing themselves an opportunity to feel their own pain. I'm not a therapist, so I can't really say, but it sort of makes sense to me.
On the other hand, I wouldn't rule out true empathy either. There are people in the world who show an enormous amount of that kind of sensitivity. Some of them become very good therapists. Read Alice Miller's "The Drama of the Gifted Child", in which children of dysfunctional families grow up with a special sensitivity to othere's emotions.
I don't know if any of this helps, but I hope so.Dee.
poster:deirdrehbrt
thread:379762
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040820/msgs/379901.html