I got this idea from a book I was reading, and have been thiking about it ever since. Are people born with the capacity and will to love and feel compassionate towards others? I would probably respond 'yes', but I'm not yet too sure. Obviously, not all people are loving, but is this just because of conditions growing up? Most likely, but if they had a decent childhood would they be a completely different, caring person?

I also wish I was autistic sometimes...live in my own world...nothing else to bother me....

Eh.......well, I suppose that is why we have imaginations.

Honestly sometimes I wish I was autistic, then I wouldn't have to pay attention to the people around me, I could live in my own world... I like it better there anyway.

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But what I wanted to know was that if they have the capability to love, why do they not have the capability/will to show it? Of course they do sometimes, but I mean to ask if they are some sort of exception in what we are talking about. Since they don't show signs of love and affection as often (on the most part) as others do, how do we know that they still feel as much love, etc.? They don't show that they really care for love, etc. all that much in either our world or theirs. I understand that they are just as love-filled as the next, but how are they to fit into our conversation if they don't hardly show compassion or something like it? Since you work with them, do they show these things sometimes, but just not as often? I wouldn't know as well...I guess that's why I'm still perplexed.

They do show compassion, but in different ways. Like, say, there's an 8 year old autistic boy I know, he gets violent out of fits sometimes, and can't talk or anything, but you notice, just "feel" that he cares on you by showing you something or randomly giving you a hug and such. Another one I know is a 14 year old who last week just came and embraced another person who also works with them. Stuff like that.

Yes, I know they are definitely not stupid. I wasn't hinting towards that AT ALL. I know a 14 year old autistic boy and he is a genius with math.

But what I wanted to know was that if they have the capability to love, why do they not have the capability/will to show it? Of course they do sometimes, but I mean to ask if they are some sort of exception in what we are talking about. Since they don't show signs of love and affection as often (on the most part) as others do, how do we know that they still feel as much love, etc.? They don't show that they really care for love, etc. all that much in either our world or theirs. I understand that they are just as love-filled as the next, but how are they to fit into our conversation if they don't hardly show compassion or something like it? Since you work with them, do they show these things sometimes, but just not as often? I wouldn't know as well...I guess that's why I'm still perplexed.

I work with autustic kids (alternative treatments and medicines) and I can tell you they do love, and they are not stupid, in fact, some, if not most, have grand abilities in certain things. They just live in their own mental world, I believe.

Thanks, guys. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of that. What about autistic people? If they don't understand human emotion or really care much for it, would they be an exception to this?

I'm with celtic. Everybody is driven by the need to feel joy, regardless of the ways that they feel it. Love and joy are often interchangeable, as are love and hurt.

All people are loving. It is society that has implied that some people are not. Everyone is. Even killers. Even terrorists. They are loving. The only thing society hasn't granted us is the acknowledging the different types of love out there. I'm not talking about gay love or anything of the sort, I mean the love a pedophile feels towards the innocent child, the love a necrophiliac feels over the corpse, the love a killer feels over the victim, the love that we feel to our own enemies, etc.