Empathy with Peers?

I just saw a reference to one of Hans Asperger’s original characterizations of empathy issues in his autistic subjects. Rather than empathy for others, the phrase used is “empathy with peers” (emphasis added). Arguably, this qualification turns the “empathy” that ought to be kind and beautiful into an implicit criterion of social conformity.

I think empathy applies to people, not to abstract so-called peer groups like school classes or co-workers. Groups as such don’t have feelings. The notion of a “typical” peer is prejudicial, and “peers” is a loaded term at best. It means others like oneself. But in the cases Asperger was describing, it seems likely that all involved felt that the ones singled out and the others were somehow fundamentally not alike.

If we cannot get along with others who are different from us, that is an issue for anyone. But it is also a two-way street, and the majority are not always right or better by the mere fact of numbers.