Empathy Disorders

Paul Bloom, in The New York Review of Books, June 11. 2011, reviewed "The Science of Evil: On Empahty and the Origina of Cruelty" by Simon Baron-Cohen.   Baron-Cohen defines evil as nothing more than "empathy erosion."  Psychopaths, narcissists, borderlines, seducers, manipulators, and con ment cause significant suffereng to those around them, due to a lck of compassion, and a willingness to destroy lives out of self-interest, malice, or boredom.   The author even suggests a new psychiatric classification to be called "empathy disorders,"  describing people who ignore the suffwering of others in the pursuit of their own goals.  In light of this argument, the recent segment on "60 Minutes," documenting the plight of American millions of chldren living in poverty, throws a penetrating light on Newt Ginrich's comment about paying poor children to clean schools so that they would learn a "work ethic."  Is Washington, as well as many corporations, banks, and stock trading companies a magnet for people with "empathy disorders?"