Compassion, Affect and Imitation

Empathy is an important way that humans process emotions triggered by our experiences in connection to the experience of others.  However, empathy is different from sympathy.  Empathy requires parallel experiences and emotional nuances that result in a connection through identification.  Sympathy requires parallel feelings.  Experiences, being more objective then feeling, can make empathy a challenging state.  I find affect can be easily mistaken for empathy.  Movies tend to create this kind of affect in many people.  A friend of mine recently made the following comment about seeing 12 Years a Slave:

“Just watched Twelve Years A Slave. I've never cried so much in my life. I'm still crying now. The agony we went through as a people. My soul hurts.”

  

It is necessary to note that she is a Black woman, born in Canada, of Jamaican parentage.  She is very socially conscious and maintains friendships with a wide variety of people.  Her black friends proceed to respond with similar feelings about the movie and the effects of slavery on Black African peoples that continue to this day.  However early in the conversation, one of her friends wrote this:

“Many groups of people have gone through this agony. Your history is unfortunately the most recent.”

She then proceeded to give a personal anecdote without particular details about a tragic event within her own family. 

I responded with:

“Really? How many "groups" of people were de-categorized as humans and sold as commodities because of the colour of their skin? For Black Africans I can't count the "groups" because they would number in the millions over 4 centuries.”

My question and comment spawned a drawn out conversation/debate about why I felt her comment was irrelevant and inappropriate.  My problem with her remark stems from what I think can be the danger in catharsis as Aristotle explained it.  His ideas assumes that the audience shares the same or similar points of reference and that the reactionary emotional response will be the same from individual to individual.  What mimesis does is give glimpse into a possible reality that must be considered in the context of possible outcomes.  Film is an art form that can be a great catalyst for affect because it even less objective than, say theatre. Where theatre relies on concepts like meta-theatre, “world of the stage” and the physical nature of live performance, film tells the story through the lens of the video camera, what is finally presented is at the discretion of the director, according to his or her visual interpretation. 

Normally, I would not have engaged the discussion as far as it went, but I felt compelled by the fact that many times we devalue each other by gratifying the egotistical desire to identify with another person’s experience, when compassion is what is needed. While not mutually exclusive, the two behaviours often seen as the same they in fact are not. Many times this assumption leads into affect.

 This conversation is not about race as much it’s about authenticity of our interactions with one another.  Black people experience this attitude out of racial biases, but the behaviour can be seen throughout our social dialogues.  How many times have we confided in friends about a sensitive topics who seem to always say, “oh yeah, that happened to me too!” when an “I’m sorry you feel that way” would’ve sufficed? Relationship doesn’t happen through observation or when we insert our own narrative in place of another person’s.  Relationship happens through actively engaging others that affirms their individuality within the framework of the “human experience.”  When we turn things the other around, the framework will always overpower the individual.  I think therein lay the source of true humanity.  Then we are individuals united through the impacts of our experiences, not experiences themselves.  First we must be open to understanding the impact of our experiences.