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Oct. 18th, 2005 09:34 amI have the DAMNEDEST habit of turning any conversation around until it's about me again. I despise that trait in myself. I've been consciously trying to STOP that for some time now, but I still see it, in emails. Yet, to complain about it again refocuses myself on me. Dear GOD this is maddening.
I see it in my empathic experiences, and sometimes I wonder if my supposed empathy is merely an overdramatic subconscious attempt to hog more attention. Like hysterical sympathy pains. When someone feels something, I attempt to explain that I understand by relating a similar instance that I've experienced. But I have been making a conscious effort to turn even that bit of conversation around so that it is about the other person again. I'm not so sure it works all the time.
On the surface, it seems difficult to learn to care about other people. Yet we often do it without thinking, quite willingly. I don't understand.
I see it in my empathic experiences, and sometimes I wonder if my supposed empathy is merely an overdramatic subconscious attempt to hog more attention. Like hysterical sympathy pains. When someone feels something, I attempt to explain that I understand by relating a similar instance that I've experienced. But I have been making a conscious effort to turn even that bit of conversation around so that it is about the other person again. I'm not so sure it works all the time.
On the surface, it seems difficult to learn to care about other people. Yet we often do it without thinking, quite willingly. I don't understand.
