In the third season episode “Earshot” of the iconic show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the hero gains the ability to read minds. More accurately, she has it imposed upon her and rather than selectively reading minds, she is forced to constantly hear everyone’s thoughts. What at first seems like an amazing superpower soon overwhelms her. She can’t shut it off. She can’t focus on what she needs to focus on because she’s suffering a constant barrage of noise. She is soon overcome with dread and then eventually panic-inducing terror that cripples her in spite of her reliable history of heroism. It eventually leaves her nearly catatonic. This is a remarkably accurate illustration of the experience and underlying cognitive processes of anxiety.
I don't think you're quite correct in identifying what was occuring as a general form of anxiety.
Interestingly, this links in with something I was going to mention should be added to your outlines of feminine vs masculine.
I think that a thinner boundary between self and other is a feature of the feminine.
Why does borderline personality disorder occur more often in women than in men?
One of the problems that occurs in borderline personality disorder is a thinning of distinctions between self and other.
A thinning of distinctions between self and other is one of the places where empathy originates.
Unfortunately, such empathy is not necessarily always a good thing, if not consciously reflected upon.
For example, women may often generally find themselves more attracted to men who seem to hold delusional levels of self-approval - because the "empathy" of such women can make them feel the self-approval of those men as though it were their own.
However, those men may very well be self-obsessed, neglectful, cheating, narcissists, who nevertheless feel great about themselves.
Riding the high of someone else's self-assessment doesn't do much good in telling whether they're going to be a good lover or a good person.
So, an unhealthy "empath" is like someone with BPD - someone who struggles to form their own independent sense of self in which they can hold their own individual perceptions and desires.
A healthy "empath" on the other hand, is like Deanna Troi.
While someone with BPD may be able to tell that another person around them is upset, due to their confusion of self and other, they may assume that the other person is upset at them, or the person with BPD may even start strongly worrying about getting upset, or may get upset as well, as the person with BPD "has issues too!"
Deanna Troi on the other hand, is a healthy empath. She can sense that another person around her is upset, but because she can sense that the upset is occuring over there and not over here, she doesn't assume the upset person is upset with her, and she also doesn't need to join them in being upset.
Instead, she can even use her empathic understanding to better comfort the other person and pay greater care to their upset.
That's the best way I could think of putting this for now anyways, hope this made sense!
I don't think you're quite correct in identifying what was occuring as a general form of anxiety.
Interestingly, this links in with something I was going to mention should be added to your outlines of feminine vs masculine.
I think that a thinner boundary between self and other is a feature of the feminine.
Why does borderline personality disorder occur more often in women than in men?
One of the problems that occurs in borderline personality disorder is a thinning of distinctions between self and other.
A thinning of distinctions between self and other is one of the places where empathy originates.
Unfortunately, such empathy is not necessarily always a good thing, if not consciously reflected upon.
For example, women may often generally find themselves more attracted to men who seem to hold delusional levels of self-approval - because the "empathy" of such women can make them feel the self-approval of those men as though it were their own.
However, those men may very well be self-obsessed, neglectful, cheating, narcissists, who nevertheless feel great about themselves.
Riding the high of someone else's self-assessment doesn't do much good in telling whether they're going to be a good lover or a good person.
So, an unhealthy "empath" is like someone with BPD - someone who struggles to form their own independent sense of self in which they can hold their own individual perceptions and desires.
A healthy "empath" on the other hand, is like Deanna Troi.
While someone with BPD may be able to tell that another person around them is upset, due to their confusion of self and other, they may assume that the other person is upset at them, or the person with BPD may even start strongly worrying about getting upset, or may get upset as well, as the person with BPD "has issues too!"
Deanna Troi on the other hand, is a healthy empath. She can sense that another person around her is upset, but because she can sense that the upset is occuring over there and not over here, she doesn't assume the upset person is upset with her, and she also doesn't need to join them in being upset.
Instead, she can even use her empathic understanding to better comfort the other person and pay greater care to their upset.
That's the best way I could think of putting this for now anyways, hope this made sense!
Woah