“Highly sensitive people are too often perceived as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate. It is not the empath who is broken, it is society that has become dysfunctional and emotionally disabled. There is no shame in expressing your authentic feelings. Those who are at times described as being a ‘hot mess’ or having ‘too many issues’ are the very fabric of what keeps the dream alive for a more caring, humane world. Never be ashamed to let your tears shine a light in this world.”
Most of us think of comedy movies wherein someone claims that being “neurotic” is part of his or her problem. In cinema and TV, these character traits are often exaggerated to make a story point. The protagonist in a film is a self-proclaimed neurotic and this is the cause of all of his or her troubles, what’s keeping them from winning their love, from quitting smoking, drinking, or too much general over-the-top excessiveness. The “neurotic” character shares that he or she regularly must see a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist or analyst of some sort.
However, a neurotic personality type is actually just the extreme end of the Empathy Spectrum. Within the idea of the Empathy Spectrum, we consider all people to have some neurotic tendencies. The idea that someone is completely neurotic is simply one extreme end of the Empathy Spectrum.
“The other end of the spectrum is Narcissism”
For our purposes in this blog, we will also consider a person’s neurotic traits to be part of their tendency to be more empathic. This is because we are dealing with two extremes. The other end of the spectrum is Narcissism.
If we can release ourselves from the responsibility of judgment upon our own thoughts or preconceived notions about being neurotic, we may learn that it can be thought of as a degree of sensitivity. One end of the Empathy Spectrum.
How the Empathy Spectrum Relates to Neurotic and Narcissistic Tendencies
The Empathy Scale reveals two things:
- Everyone lives somewhere on this Empathy Scale
- Where you live on the Empathy Scale may show some insight into how your friendships, relationships, and professional interactions may be helping you or slowing you down.
It is possible to find clarity within your relationships even some that have troubled you for years, if you can understand some basic empathy concepts. Most importantly, you may be able to discern and identify some of the personality traits in others that have confused you forever.
Alternatively, you may find that you can see how some of your daily habits and tendencies contribute to causing some of the very problems you might be blaming others for.
Most people have a healthy mix of some neurotic tendencies, and some from the other end of the scale, many traits of what we could call a Narcissistic personality type.
Which brings us to… The Theory of Balanced Empathy that is already shared with you all. I hope you better understand that now.
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