What no love OR loathing this time? Weird.

Hello everyone and as you know it is 'Forlorn Friday' and today I am not going to be ranting of what I hate, what I loath, what I love or what I adore. No today I just want to talk about a medical condition that I am sure has an actual name but the name I have coined myself. I think.


Character Empathy


Character Empathy is the name I have given to a certain quirk some -or even all- people suffer from.


It is simply the condition in which people act like a character from a film, book, anime, cartoon, story, tale or their imagination.  Not in the usual sense of impersonating someone for another's amusement. More in the sense of just becoming that character for no actual reasoning.


A person becomes so engrossed in a character's personality that they adopt traits of that character themselves permanently or otherwise. Certain quirks of this character become their own and affect the way they act around others.


For example:
A person has read a book for the evening and their mind has focused on a certain character. Say this character is very sarcastic, they naturally retort to some statements with a comment that could be considered rude to most. The brain focuses in on this trait and adopts it. The next day this person awakens and throughout the day people notice a change in the person. He is a lot more sarcastic and often demeaning to people. This is character empathy.


I myself hold this 'condition'. I have notice many a time that after reading a book or watching some sort of programme. I will adopt a trait of the main character. Be it all of their personality or just a segment of it. I have no wish to be these people and I do not notice I am doing it until it has been done and it is too late. Sometimes it gets me in trouble and most times it goes unnoticed. Unless people are just weary of commenting on it with me.


This can be caused by a few things in my opinion.
First off is a dissociation with the world around you. You feel that you do not belong and thus take on traits of characters that you perceive as more appropriate for the world around you. This may not be from characters but the people around you too.


A counter argument to this point would be that environment shapes the personality and even appearance of the human. Now this is true to a certain age. But after the age of 16 I feel the personality is if not fully developed at least fully possessed by the human and therefore can only be shaped by the human themselves and not those around them. Unless significant trauma causes a massive change in lifestyle then an outside force may change the personality.


Next would be not a dissociation with the world around you but dissatisfaction. You feel the world is dull or uneventful. You begin to idolise the lives of characters in books and movies and thus adopt their personalities in a futile attempt to capture their lifestyle. The mind feels that if they become this character the world around them will morph into a more interesting place.


Now the question is. Is this a concious choice or sub-concious. I am not entirely sure. If I was asked I would say it is a mix of both. The concious choice being the person saying:
"I wish my life was interesting, like that guy's"
And the sub-concious choice is acting on that statement to satisfy the mind's need for activity which it does not feel it receives from reality.


The final cause of this could just be that the mind finds the character interesting, and merely wants to imitate the character as a show of flattery.


A prime example of this would be married couples. Two people that almost become on personality. Their consciousnesses do not meld but they both adopt traits from the other. The wife is a bit of a clean freak so the husband tends to take slightly better care of themselves. The husband is a business man so the wife tends to think more logically. These are not obvious occurrences but if you observe closely enough you will notice them too.


The question that is posed by all this is whether character empathy is a mental illness or simply a quirk that is held by some or maybe even all individuals. Or perhaps it is what all personalities are based on. That no one person is truly themselves, they are adapted from what their minds finds interesting and valuable. If that were true that would depreciate the value of all life and minds because no one would be truly unique. We would all be altered copies of a few individuals.


The decision is yours. Is character empathy truly a part of all of us? An illness that some have that must be treated? Is it a blessing that only some have been lucky enough to be given? You decide.

It's on my head! How could you not notice? .... You have no idea how vacant I am do you?

First off on this 'Weepy Wednesday' you might have noticed I no longer post daily. Why? Because the world sadly just doesn't present its stupidity in obvious manners which is also the point of my post today. Sort of.


As I was walking the dogs today I noticed something new. It was the same route I always take but with a slight variation that occurs probably 4 times a week sometimes more.


Now as I walked past the power station I noticed a sign on the large metal gates. What the sign said was not important but the fact that I have lived in this area for around 13 years and seen this power station gate well over a thousand times and I had yet to notice the rusting at the bottom sign with my towns name on it shocked me. Almost.


When I saw this sign I instantly said to myself.
"Well that's new ... wait, no it's not."
And then thought to myself how often men don't notice things.


Throughout my life I have been given many examples that my fellow rib givers don't tend to see what is in front of their eyes. Simple things like a class room being painted or a girl getting a hair cut. To really big things like their partner owning a brand new car or their couch being missing.


Now when I thought about it I realised this is pretty common knowledge. Most men seem to acknowledge the fact that they are blind to everything but:
A) Breasts and bottoms.
B) Money.
C) Their hobby of choice.
D) Food.
E) Good manly films.


Now note that I said most men seem to realise this. Not women. No I have learned through observation and experience that women do not know men are blind to what I listed. They expect us to see the minute of the world and comment on this.


Here's a prime example of how a situation where a man is blind.
Girlfriend walks into room. "Hey baby!"
"Hi, how are you."
"I'm fine."
"Good.
"..." Stern look.
"Something wrong?"
"You can't see it?"
"See what?"
"I can't believe you can't see it."
"See what?!"
"My hair!" Point to hair as if he doesn't know where it is.
"What about it?"
"It's been dyed."
"Oh." Man finally notices that the woman's hair is red rather than blonde. "I'm sorry."


Now I would be inclined to sympathise with women on this issue but after so many years they might learn that men are blind to those magic 5 things.


Yes men could be a little more observant especially with things like a change in hair style or colour. That doesn't mean we should notice when women get tiny tiny studs in their ears that are partially covered by hair and not even shiny.


To the women of planet earth. You all need to learn of man's ability to be absolutely vacant. You look at us and see a caring loving partner that will notice and compliment your new dress. No. That is not how it works. In reality we are essentially a box with a lump of grey matter with the 5 things written on it. I shall remind you of those 5 things.

A) Breasts and bottoms.

B) Money.
C) Their hobby of choice.

D) Food.

E) Good manly films.

Simply put. If you come home with money in between your melons, a good film in between your ass cheeks and a pizza balanced on your new hairdoo we are going to notice.
Walk into the room wearing your new red dress.... okay we will notice that because we'll know you expect us to get off our asses and go dancing. (Which isn't bad guys, don't knock it till you tried it.)
Come home with your hair sightly adjusted and a little shorter we aren't going to notice. It just isn't going to happen.


- Matt.
I don't hate women.
I just hate what they expect from me.


P.S If you didn't get the joke in the 4th paragraph you need to read a little more about religion.