By Maureen Seaberg — 2015
Pioneering therapist Dr. Judith Orloff counsels the highly empathic.
Read on www.psychologytoday.com
CLEAR ALL
People with the unique neurological condition aren't just sensitive to the emotions and physical sensations of others—they feel them like it's their own.
Mirror-touch synesthesia is a rare neurological trait that makes people highly empathic, allowing them to feel what others do by looking at or touching them.
Since she was young, Luna Jones has had the “superhuman” ability to feel everything you (and everyone else) feels. Is it a burden or a gift?
Although synesthesia is not as rare as it was once believed, synesthetes (people who experience synesthesia) typically don’t realize their unique abilities are not common to everyone. Another fun fact: it’s also believed synesthesia could be linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Interactions between self-other representation and vicarious perception are thought to be important to how we all experience empathy.
Our five senses evolved to help us know the world. But sometimes, a tripped wire or two in the brain lets us perceive in completely bizarre ways.
Given the right circumstances.
Conceptions of identities are complex. We have a number of identities that manifest themselves in different environments or as composite forms of background experience. So, do neurodiverse conditions like autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and bipolar really comprise a part of a person’s identity?
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In a provocative review paper, French neuroscientists Jean-Michel Hupé and Michel Dojat question the assumption that synesthesia is a neurological disorder.
Research and understanding of synesthesia are currently quite fluid, with new findings being regularly reported. The scientific community has, however, established somewhat consistent descriptions of the most common ways in which the various types of synesthesia manifested.