There are people with Asperger's whom I've met who certainly would be very upset to learn they'd hurt another person's feelings. They often have very strong moral consciences and moral codes. They care about not hurting people.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that individuals with Asperger's syndrome can be deeply empathetic and concerned about the feelings of others.
Simon Baron-Cohen highlights the often-misunderstood moral compass of individuals with Asperger's syndrome, suggesting that despite challenges in social interactions, they possess a strong moral conscience. This reinforces the idea that people with Asperger's are often caring and sensitive, capable of feeling remorse for inadvertently hurting others, which challenges stereotypes about their emotional awareness.
In practice
In a discussion about disability awareness, this quote could highlight the moral awareness of individuals with Asperger's.
When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble. It is effective as a way of anticipating and resolving interpersonal problems, whether this is a marital conflict, an international conflict, a problem at work, difficulties in a friendship, political deadlocks, a family dispute, or a problem with a neighbor.
Brains come in different types and they're all normal.
Well, in the general population, we find differences between the typical male and typical female. For example, males seem to be more interested in systems and females seem to be more interested in people and particularly people's emotions.
Empathy is a skill like any other human skill - and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it.
If we treat another person as essentially bad, we dehumanize him or her. If we take the view that every human being has some good in them, even if it is only 0.1 percent of their makeup, then by focusing on their good part, we humanize them. By acknowledging and attending to and rewarding their good part, we allow it to grow, like a small flower in a desert.
I feel that we Germans are spending less and less time talking to each other. And even less time listening to each other.
Every now and then she looked around for tangible evidence of his having ever been there. Where were the butterflies? the blueberries? the whistling reed? She could find nothing, for he had left nothing but his stunning absence.
I'm always thinking about women, and what we need to hear. It's difficult being a woman. It's so much pressure, and we need that support sometimes and we need that escape sometimes.
Where there must be a choice, a girl will choose Daddy. Even if you are Mommy, you concede that this must be so: you remember when you were a girl, too.
The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.
Parents need to listen as much to their kids as they do to them: "The first duty of love is to listen."
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.