All species of animals living in groups have the ability to be sensitive to the pain and suffering of their fellowmen, solidarity is part of the genetic material because in most cases it functions as a guarantee for the survival of the species. Aren’t some people sensitive to the suffering of others?How is it possible to emotionally close to what is outside of oneself?What makes a person insensitive?
There are several possible answers to these questions. The causes of insensitivity range from serious pathologies to extreme vulnerability. There are also many ways to become insensitive and include multiple events.
- Generally.
- Insensitivity does not apply to everything.
- In other words.
- Unless there is a very disabling mental disorder.
- People are not completely insensitive; there is a variation in degree.
- An object variation and circumstances also vary; in other words.
- Someone may be completely insensitive to the suffering of some and.
- At the same time.
- Very sensitive to the pain of others at some point.
If you live on a busy avenue, most likely, unless your house is very secluded, it is that you spend the day listening to the noises of the street, if you are not used to this situation, all the noises can bother you. After a while the opposite can happen, basically you can stop paying attention and, in fact, feel a strange feeling when everything is silent, that is, you become insensitive to noise.
In the world of emotions something similar happens, but not the same, anyone who has experienced great emotional suffering is generally more empathetic and more sensitive to the pain of others, but if this pain exceeds certain limits, or if it occurs in a context of extreme vulnerability, the opposite effect occurs: the person becomes insensitive.
The disconcerting thing is that the opposite phenomenon can also occur, i. e. those who have never experienced or experienced any suffering, or who have experienced it, but to a very little extent, can also become insensitive. value the suffering of others. His capacity for empathy does not develop and what happens is a kind of emotional ignorance that prevents the subject from sympathizing with the suffering or joy of others. Insensitivity is not only given by negative emotions.
The man insensitive to the suffering of others manifests itself in many ways, it is not only about remaining indifferent to someone’s needs or asking for help, it also includes any behavior in which another human being is considered an organism, an instrument or a medium without the less being at the same time the end of the behavior.
Most commonly, a person is sensitive and insensitive, it is also common for those who are normally sensitive and empathetic to experience moments of insensitivity, there are many factors that mix for this to happen, if someone goes through a period of severe suffering, they probably do not have enough emotional energy during that time to understand the suffering of others.
There are people who fear suffering and inadvertently develop strategies, mechanisms or ways of becoming insensitive, as is the case, for example, in the case of addictions.
The use of psychoactives also raises a barrier of insensitivity to the suffering of others, it is a bubble that acts as an insulator. Building and maintaining an overly rigid personality is another insensitivity strategy, in fact, it is a very severe way to control emotions, so all energy is directed to contain them.
Love and solidarity, if authentic, are also universal; it is said that if someone loves a human being, he also loves humanity; by making an analogy with this saying, we could also say that it is impossible to be sensitive to the suffering of a human being without, at the same time, being sensitive to the pain of all other human beings. This is usually the case, albeit at different intensities.
In this sense, those who are not recipients of the sensitivity of others may feel affected, but it is true that the problem actually comes from those who do not show sensitivity. Instinctive inclination to solidarity is not a whim of nature. a genetic transmission skill, information installed in our species as a guarantee of survival. Helping and being helped is one of the strategies that life must perpetuate. It’s a strategy that humans must continue to exist.
Images ceded by Elicia Edijanto, Molly Strohl