Hello, everyone! I am usually a reddit wallflower, never really posting anything! But I am looking for books about empathy. My search has an unusual back story:
I am currently writing a memoir about two years I spent incarcerated. While I was in prison, I encountered women whose crimes were horrific and violent, crimes I do not condone. But despite knowing the grisly details of their actions, many of them were sweet or at least cordial on a day to day basis, or seemed deeply distraught but their actions, and I really struggled with my emotions. I struggled with feeling guilty by just treating them with basic human compassion. By being friendly with someone who had done something terrible, was I somehow justifying that action, even subconsciously? I found myself feeling sad for some of them, and then I'd be mad at myself for feeling that way.
At one point, my prison job-assignment was to be a "medical assistant" on what was basically the special needs unit… the unit where the difficult or mentally distraught wound up. It was basically a psych ward. I hated seeing the way some inmates were treated. But if you looked at their crimes, many would believe they deserved that extreme level of punishment. It's been years since I was in there, but those conflicted feelings are still something I struggle to articulate (but need to explore, because I'm coming to that chapters in my book where this becomes prevalent!)
I would love a book that helped me explore these feelings.
by SamanRaid