I Can Feel Your Pain
Empathy for pain has conceptual commonalities with synaesthesia. Credit: iStockphoto
By John Bradshaw
Empathy for someone else’s pain shares common characteristics with synaesthesia, a sensory condition where individuals can smell music or taste colours.
John Bradshaw is Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University. This article is adapted from a script broadcast on Ockham’s Razor, and has been updated with additional information from Bernadette Fitzgibbon.
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