Reddit reviews Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential-and Endangered

That sounds totally fucked up. A coworker went through your personal belongings and discovered private medical information which they then brought to your superiors, who fired you because you have been diagnosed with a disorder? That's a labour rights case right there. Unless they had some reason to be unhappy with your performance at work, there is no reason to fire you. Almost every person on the planet can, in some way, be classified under one or more personality disorders. Also, having a personality disorder is a medical condition, and you can't fire someone for having a medical condition unless it demonstrably reduces their ability to perform their work (at least in Canada, not sure what the labour laws are like where you live). You've obviously been performing up to snuff, so there is no reason why discovery of your disorder should result in you being let go, except for serious fuckery.

People who are supposed to have more empathy than you ended up throwing you under the bus. Fuck them. It sounds like you were successful in it prior to this; don't let them take that away from you. Just because you didn't feel like you made internal progress doesn't mean you didn't actually change the lives of the people you met and worked with.

I can't tell you what to do with your life. But I hope you will keep living and that you find what you've been looking for.

I read your original post. Maybe what you are missing is a true empathetic epiphany. Like the kind you get while on MDMA, but while sober, and much more powerful and in your face. The only way to get that is to go places and talk to people. Hear their stories, really listen to them. Try to connect them to your own, think of times where something similar happened to you, and how you felt about it. Maybe try different therapists who deal specifically with personality disorders and empathy and see if you get more progress from them. The brain is a very flexible organ, and behaviour can alter it (even alter genetics) to a much greater effect than most people think.

Have you ever read the book "Born For Love"? I found it very useful and informative.

The whole concept of "you'll spoil them" if you show them too much love and affection, and "that kids bounce back" or the idea that children are extremely resilient to trauma has really shifted from the early 80s to today. Now that we know so much more about the effects of trauma, stress, and affection on the developing brain, both of the concepts above have been largely dropped.

If you're a reader and as fascinated by child psychology as I am, I'd definitely recommend reading "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook--What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing" - absolutely heartbreaking in some cases, but so informative. Another really good complimentary book (by the same folks!) is "Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential--and Endangered."

Link for the lazy. Sounds like a good book.