Empathy Takes Action

Empathy—the ability to understand and share others’ experiences—has long been thought of as an innate moral virtue. You’re either an empathetic person capable of connecting deeply with others and feeling what they feel, or you’re not. And for too long, autistic people have been told they are not.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. In Empathy Takes Action, autistic therapist Aimee Cliff draws on scientific research, case studies, and her own experiences to not only thoroughly debunk the myth that autistic people are incapable of empathy, but to propose a radically inclusive new definition. Empathy, it turns out, is something you do, not something you are—meaning it’s something we can all get better at with practice. You’ll discover how we’ve gotten empathy so wrong over the years, and why the traditional definition’s reliance on assumption-making and “mind-reading” actually gets in the way of human connection. You’ll learn how the long-held belief in autistic people’s lack of empathy stems from a failure of empathy on the part of neurotypical scientists, and why it takes two to empathize. And you’ll see how autistic people show empathy—and how you can use these lessons to overcome common barriers to empathy, strengthen your empathy muscles, and build stronger connections, whether you have autism or not.

Author Biography

Aimee Cliff is a writer and therapist based in London. She began her career as a music and culture journalist, working as associate editor of The FADERand editor of Dazed Digital. As a freelance writer, she has bylines in The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Independent, Vice, and more. She currently works for a disability charity