Hyperempathy: An advantage?

In Parable of the Sower, we're introduced to the protagonist, Lauren, who looks and acts like a typical 15 year old girl, but later on we learn that this isn't the case. Lauren possesses the rare trait of hyperempathy: a psychological disorder that gives her the delusion that she can physically feel the emotions of others such as pain and pleasure. Using basic logic, we can deduce that having such a trait is disadvantageous in a world where anarchy and pain dominates. However, Lauren poses the question, "But if everyone could feel everyone else's pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I've never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but the way things are, I think it would help" (10.115).

It's interesting to hypothesize how Lauren's idea of a society of hyperempaths would play out. Looking at its advantages, hyperempathy would supposedly be the cure to all of the negative aspects of society and would be a source of wisdom that would further it. With this condition, everyone would be more aware of others' well-being, and being emotionally connected, would be less likely to inflict harm on each other. This would be a great deterrent to crime and in turn would lead to a more moral society.

However, there would be various disadvantages to this society. Feelings and emotions alone would not contribute directly to the advancement of society, but the shift itself would, which could be done without the idea that everyone must be a hyperempath. Furthermore, to most, hyperempathy will be seen as a vulnerability as the pain can be exploited and used against others. As Lauren stated, "Sharing is a weakness, a shameful secret. A person who knows what I am can hurt me, betray me, disable me with little effort" (15.178). Being so vulnerable to everyone's pain would increase the risk of being taken advantage of as well, thus invoking fear rather than acceptance and effectively destroying the thought of sustaining such a society.

What do you think? Is there a realistic scenario where a hyperempathic society succeeds? Or would it end in ruin, overrun with fear and exploitation?

- Sparsh S.

Comments

  1. I think a hyperempathic society would fail. Very few people do things for the good of everyone else, and so there would definitely be abuse of knowledge provided by the disease. On top of that, not everyone wants everyone to know exactly what they are going through. Privacy is important, and some things require trust to be shared.

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  2. I am unsure if the society in Parable of the Sower would improve if hyperempathy was a more widespread trait. It would likely somewhat decrease crime by discouraging people from harming others since they would feel the pain they inflict on other people. However, there is still a loophole to it all; if Lauren kills someone or knocks them unconscious, she doesn't feel any pain. While some of the more gruesome acts we've seen in Parable of the Sower might be prevented, this loophole might result in murder rates increasing.

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  3. I don't necessarily think a hyperempathy society would succeed. I do think people wouldn't torture others as much but there would still probably be murder because Lauren doesn't feel pain when she murders someone. I also feel like there would be people that wouldn't be as hyper empathetic as others or they could train themselves to get over their hyper empathy. Also everyone could be easily taken advantage of.

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  4. That would be an interesting end to Parable of the Sower, where somehow the president or other leaders of society find a way to genetically make the whole society have hyperempathy. Though it seems like this could make the perfect utopia, I agree with some of the above comments that a society with hyperempathy could still have some of the social ills of the POTS society, as people would still find ways around feeling pain.

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  5. Good question! I honestly don’t think a hyperempathetic society would be a great thing; there are a lot of little loopholes and people could easily take advantage of others. This would cause a reverse effect since the whole point is to improve society for the better, since their world is already so disastrous. It would be interesting to see how things function if everyone had hyperempathy.

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  6. I think your society would be a massive example of bipolar disorder. If the society starts off neutral, and then someone starts feeling good for some reason, then everyone else around would start to feel it exponentially. This would eventually lead everyone to feel super good, however, this also exists for the opposite. If something bad is to happen, the society could quickly become depressed. It could also become very quickly disabled. If someone were to have a bone broken, then the entire population would feel as if their bones were broken. In order to avoid this, the society may have to kill their own people to avoid harm to the general population.

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  7. This is an interesting thought. I don't know how well a society full of people with hyper empathy would fare. It would be nice if people could gain a better understanding of each other's pain, but I don't think that would necessarily erase all bad in the world and turn everyone into a good person. There is definite possibility of finding a loophole or having the society as a whole go downhill if everyone was hyper empathetic. I think it especially wouldn't work out in a society like the one in Parable of the Sower, where violence and pain are so prevalent.

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  8. This in an interesting hypothetical situation to think about. I can see how a hyperempathetic society could be beneficial but could also lead to becoming a disaster as well. It could cause people to understand how other people feel better and therefore help heighten the morality of society, but it could also very easily be used as a device to inflict pain as well. It would be interesting to see how that would play out.

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  9. This is an interesting situation but I don't think a society full of hyperempaths would necessarily fare well. Yes, it could be beneficial in that people would understand each other's feelings and be less likely to inflict pain on others, but there is also a loophole: Lauren doesn't feel any pain when she murders someone. As such, this might discourage people from harming others but could cause an increase in murder rates.

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  10. I don't know that hyperempathy would be an advantage to an entire society. In theory, it would be a utopia, but there are too many uncertainties about hyperempathy for us to make a conclusion about how it would work. I immediately thought of how hyperempathy would work in a small group/commune-like setting: it seems like it would work out because nobody would want to hurt each other. But the entire world? I have no idea. Another factor to point out is that Lauren only feels things that are close to her (she doesn't feel something when someone's wounded across the city, for example). How far would the empathy extend? And how would the society deal with outliers?

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  11. I would be quite concerned about the possibility of all crime and hostile action escalating radically and immediately at the start of a confrontation. As we know, Lauren can stop feeling someone else's pain if they are killed, and this could lead to rapid escalation to murder in order to avoid feeling pain. Since pain is fairly inevitable (people will always trip and fall, and stub their toes), it seems like a hyperempathic society would have issues with households and similar sliding into depression or pain cycles. In addition, how would anyone be able to give medical care, if seeing someone in pain gave you the exact same pain?
    -Sasha

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  12. This is definitely really interesting! I agree with you that the concept of a society full of hyperempaths seems like it could be a good thing on some level. If harming others would harm yourself, I definitely agree that there would be more incentive to be kind, or at least non-violent towards other. Although, it does seem like that would leave a lot of space for the society to be taken advantage of, and I don't think it would get rid of violence altogether - despite her hyperempathy Lauren still kills living beings when she's forced to.

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  13. This is really interesting. It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where someone doesn't find some loophole in the hyper empathy or some type of treatment that allows them to hurt others without hurting themselves. This would quickly lead to a toxic power dynamic and the downfall of the society.

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  14. Hyperempathy hasn't stopped her from defending herself up to this point, even shooting to kill animals and people. And crime like arson, theft, and kidnapping might not cause injury. I feel like Lauren's personality defines her pacifism and hyperempathy, not the other way around.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think a hyperempathic society will avoid the problems we're associating with our society. I really liked Betsy's observation that even good-hearted people like Lauren are able to kill so I don't think hyperempathy will create a society without violence.

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  15. Nice post! I agree that a hyperempathic society wouldn't really solve the issues of violence in the world today. In fact, it could be used to exploit people even further, or inflict pain on one person and force others you also want to inflict pain on to see that too, or something like that. People would find a way to get around it and use it to their advantage, I think. And that just makes things worse.

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  16. A hyperempathic society could make so many things worse and would ultimately fail. Everybody could potentially feel the same occurring pain. Personally, I would hate to see somebody feeling hunger because I wouldn't stop eating! And I have to stop eating because I'm on a diet! This is an interesting idea, however. Great post!

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  17. I’m sort of skeptical of the success of a hyperempathic society. In general, I think the idea that a Utopia can exist is a bit far fetched for me. In the case of hyperempathy, I don’t think it would work out because I feel that people will still be motivated to do bad things. Particularly, I can imagine people telling themselves that what they’re doing is a necessary evil and surmounting their aversion to other people’s pain.

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  18. I think that another disadvantage of of a society where everyone has hyperempathy is that everyone would feel the pain of any injury or death that has happened. I think that this would be a significant problem, even if it did prevent intentional violence.

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  19. i fucking hate this book... its sucks ass. Id much rather suck 10 dicks for 7 weeks than write this stupid essay on this stupid book. pacing is bad, its unoriginal and its sooooo repetitive. Honestly, the only reason why it got popular was because the setting of the book is starting to resemble America's future. Bitch i dont even live in the united states why tf am i reading this crap. LAuren is also a super boring charecter. she has no growth and is a marry sue. she has no flaws and is, of course, the smartest of them all. her relationship with bankole was alos very boring and irrelevant. there was no real tension between the two and nobody seemed suprised at the age difference.
    therefore ill rate this book...(although nobody asked) 3/10

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