Psychopaths exhibit diminished ability to grieve. Here I address whether this inability can be explained by the trademark feature of psychopaths, namely, their diminished capacity for interpersonal empathy. I argue that this hypothesis turns out to be correct, but requires that we conceptualize empathy not merely as an ability to relate (emotionally and ethically) to other individuals but also as an ability to relate to past and present iterations of ourselves. This reconceptualization accords well with evidence regarding psychopaths’ intense focus on the temporal present and difficulties in engaging in mental time travel, as well as with the essentially egocentric and identity-based nature of grief.

中文翻译：

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同理心和精神病患者无法悲伤

精神病患者表现出悲伤的能力减弱。在这里，我讨论这种无能是否可以用精神病患者的标志性特征来解释，即他们的人际同理心能力减弱。我认为这个假设被证明是正确的，但要求我们将同理心概念化不仅是一种与其他个体（情感上和道德上）联系的能力，而且也是一种与我们自己过去和现在的迭代联系起来的能力。这种重新概念化与精神病患者对时间当下的强烈关注和进行精神时间旅行的困难以及悲伤本质上以自我为中心和基于身份的本质的证据非常吻合。