A Good Virtue Gone Bad – Reflections on Empathy

In the opening chapter of Suicidal Empathy, Gad Saad begins by affirming empathy as an evolved and noble virtue central to our social nature. He explains that it is adaptive and beneficial when properly calibrated, aiding in relationships, friendships, mate selection, and caregiving professions such as nursing and medicine.

Saad notes that empathy is partly inherited and measurable, and that too little of it can make someone callous, while the right amount, directed at the right targets, strengthens human connection. He then shows how this same virtue can become maladaptive when it is hyperactive, misdirected, or allowed to override reason and practical realities.

This is where empathy shifts from helpful to harmful. What Saad calls “suicidal empathy.” I recently experienced a clear example of this dynamic in action at the Austin Public Library. I went there hoping to relax and read, only to find the space dominated by middle-aged male vagrants.

When I spoke with a librarian about the environment, she defended the situation by explaining that these individuals are “part of the community” the library serves.

The policy effectively prioritizes access for disruptive transients over creating a safe, welcoming space for families, women, and regular patrons. It felt like a textbook case of maladaptive empathy at the institutional level. Well-intentioned compassion that ends up making public resources unusable for the very people they were meant to serve.

Saad’s framework in Chapter 1 helps explain why this happens: when empathy is decoupled from boundaries, consequences, and the well-being of the broader community, it can erode the very institutions it claims to protect.

I’m looking forward to sharing a my Review of Chapter 2 with you soon. – Gail Alfar