I have recently extended my own experience with books to a
certain subgroup of difficult-to-treat children in my practice.
These children tend to have neurocognitive issues that burden
the unfolding of their emotional lives, including the
development of empathy. They may have a nonverbal learning
disability, Asperger's syndrome, high-functioning autism, mild
retardation or traumatic brain damage. They find it hard to read
social cues and to understand the responses of classmates,
teachers and family members. For such children, at some point in
their treatment, I introduce books and writing exercises that
focus on the alternative point of view. I have found, at a
minimum, that my patients' increase in intellectual
understanding of the alternative viewpoint in the literary realm
helps them function better in the real world. I have yet to
determine whether such an understanding leads to the capacity
for empathy. Empathy is a complex developmental accomplishment
whose origins are not fully understood, but the exi