Wonderful, stunning, a real keeper. This book made me think about how people act and gave me a new set of explanations for it. ( )

This book presents an interesting look at empathy and how it relates to cruelty. I would have given it 4 stars but over 30% of the book is appendices. Not cool Cohen! ( )

A easy and logical read on the role of empathy in inducing crimes (mostly involving murder/holocaust cases). The author Simon suggests that factors such as environment (parental care, threat), genes, intentions and religious beliefs affect empathy circuit. Using neuroscience and psychology in explaining the different parts of the empathy circuit, Simon draws a negative relationship between level of empathy and inactive parts of empathy circuit. He went on to elaborate the 3 different types of Zero-Negative (borderline, psychopath, and narcissistic). He argues that these 3 different types of zero-negative share a commonality in terms of how they each account for individuals' zero degrees of empathy.

What I particular enjoyed about this book is the author's approach towards punishment for individuals who suffered from Zero-Negative and Zero-Positive. He posits that victims who do not cause harm to society should be given compassionate treatment, rather than put into prisons (which put more stress on them due to their inability to relate to people or street-smart prisoners). He also argues that death sentence is a cruel punishment as it deprives victims of the chance to change for the better.

However, Simon unnecessarily repeats his content throughout the same chapter and this makes it tedious to read.

Overall, it's an insightful book about the importance of empathy as a solution to resolving conflicts than alternative (such as guns, laws, or religions). ( )

This book is like a catch 22 on empathy and I say that after mulling it over for a few weeks. I wasn't keen to read it, because I am not keen on the phrase - "extreme male brain theory of autism".
I am even less keen now, and think it is pejorative and should not be used.
This book has only male examples of autism, plus an additional general group of female anorexics. It was enough to make me throw the book at the wall, but that would probably be enough to have me defined as bpd - where all subjects were female.
That said, I think this is an interesting topic and the discussion makes you question your own thoughts on empathy. If I could draw,I could explain it in a model, which would use his idea (?) of a light bulb, but be considerably more complicated.
However, empathy is also the tool and lever of psychopaths, sexual predators and con artists. Its what gets the old lady to hand over her pension book, the young girl to worry about hurting the feelings of her abuser and/or family and possibly befriend the dangerous loner.
Empathy feels like a skill that you can develop, although people will start with biological (dis)advantages and also different society expectations.
It is a talent - in his words a pot of gold that you carry with you in life, that can also make you more vulnerable to attack. I think the zero positive would be more usefully applied to the individual instance of empathy and the result is produced. ( )

A very interesting book with a controversial claim that when people commit acts of cruelty, a specific circuit in the brain ("the empathy circuit") goes down. When we try to explain acts of human cruelty, there is no scientific value in the term 'evil' but there is scientific value in using the term 'empathy erosion'.

Some Key Points:
- The book proposes a simple but persuasive hypothesis for a new way to think about evil.
- The main goal of the writer according to him is to understand human cruelty, replacing the unscientific term ‘evil’ with the scientific term ‘empathy,’
- absence of empathy due to negative environmental factors and genetic component.
- Zero-Negative Personality ( Zero Type P [psychopathology], Zero Type B [borderline disorder], Zero Type N [narcissism])
- Viewing personality disorders in terms of empathy has a very different treatment implications
- People with low degree of empathy can be taught empathy!
- The empathy circuit in the brain
- Zero empathy is not necessarily negative!
- People with Asperger’s syndrome also fall on the zero end of the scale, but they are Zero Positive. Zero Positive is almost always accompanied by high scores on the systemizing scale (and can lead to genius)
- What is the nature of cruelty? ( )