Talk:Apathy

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relevance
May very well be true. But not relevant. Moved to BJAODN. Kevyn 14:05, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It seems from a search I did on Google.com that the word illegal (bar "" ...) should perhaps be added to the middle paragraph: Certain "illegal" drugs are known to cause apcribe marijuana and the like (those that argue that marijuana should be legal wouldn't like this word added), since from the article itself it may be understood that regular medicines, not for pleasure but for cure, are a cause for apathy.

Actually, by reason, I would argue that any strong drug, legal or illegal, would cause apathy since it is numbing et cetera.

As someone taking anti-depressants and feeling strongly apathetic, I suspect that there is a connection. - AC

Social Origin
There is a quote in this section (“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”) attributed to Charles de Montesquieu. However, there is no citation for it. A quick Google search revealed this potential source (Montesquieu, Spirit of the laws, 1748) but it was always paired with a painting that took its title from the quote.KarlyQuinn (talk) 05:58, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

Age and Apathy
The article mentions apathy with high school students, but has any research been done on any developmental reasons this might be so, instead of just external reasons? How long does this apathy continue? Does it go up and down throughout human lifespan or is it consistently the highest during the teenage years? Is there any research on apathy in old age due to the limits of older bodies? Just some things I was thinking about as I was reading. I think the section could be added to or even split. Marta251 (talk) 19:14, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Not everybody!
Actually not everybody is apathetic about... apathy! Check the disputed article on zamanfou, especially the discussion section.

minatsu

first sentence
can someone please explain that first sentence for me? It doesn't make any sense to me... Nervousbreakdance 03:35, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Apathy is a psychological term for a state of indifference — where an individual is unresponsive or "indifferent" to aspects of emotional, social, or physical life.

this is basically saying that when you have the "i dont give a sh*t" attitude to something. so there could be somthing in your social life that you dont really care about or "couldnt care less about" - that would be apathy.

"Apathy is a common feeling of complete discontent (dissatisfaction, i.e. not satisfied) for one's emotional behavior." - I find this sentence equally puzzling. Someone care to explain? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rhyming (talk • contribs) 04:02, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Apathetic people don't concern themselves with social issues like the war, nor do they care about the people who died in them. Reguardless of whether or not they voted, whether they won or lost, they would quickly have loss interest after winning or gotten over loosing very quickly, since most of the things politicians do don't effect every individual. An apathetic person is no more a pessimist than an optimist. Some apathetic people may even be mildly annoyed by other people's emotions, seeing them as weaknesses. An apathetic person is difficult to anger, impossible to enrage, has few if any fears, doesn't get excited for anything, if they won the lotto or a car, the responce would be minimal, like "Oh, cool."

dissociative disorder
The end of the second sentence links to "Dissociative identity disorder" (multiple personality disorder), but it would seem more appropriate to link to "Depersonalization disorder" which is also considered a dissociative disorder. Anyone have a degree in psychology? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yruablaze (talk • contribs) 04:41, 15 March 2007 (UTC).

Add link to another wikipedia article
Sorry, I'm not familiar with the psychological terminology, but I sometimes find interesting articles on wikipedia.

I remember reading a wikipedia article of some sort of "syndrome" that related to helping other people in distress. I think there was an example where someone was injured, but even tough lot of people noticed the person asking for help, no one did anything because they assumed someone else would.

Perhaps, someone can remember this articles name and possibly link it to "Apathy". I would think they are related.

Depression
What does this have to do with apathy? An apathetic person just doesn't care about anything; a depressed person, on the other hand, cares but feels they can't do anything about it and as such are sad and hopeless.24.118.227.213 05:18, 28 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It might be suggesting that apathetic people are physically or mentally depressed, but are unable to care about it. A type of depression that doesn't involve sadness. Though I'm willing to bet they're high on nostalgia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.77.255 (talk) 02:49, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

history
the history section seems to contradict a comment on apathy found in main entry for stoicism at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism

which states that "apathy was understood in the ancient sense [as] having 'clear judgement'" --Psychlobs (talk) 09:10, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

apathy
I would point out that apathy is NOT an emotion; it is the lack of an emotion...if i cared Kinzukiwi-lphs (talk) 06:39, 2 February 2008 (UTC)


 * commonly associated with depression. - you're dumb if you think that! If I ignore someone it's not because I'm depressed, it's because he/she is indifferent to me. It's better to ignore than to hate. Just personal opinion. 83.228.89.2 (talk) 21:04, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Apathy and Sympathy
Should be mentioned that these are very opposite? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.233.247.10 (talk) 00:42, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Surely apathy lies between antipathy and sympathy, rather than being directly opposite to either?


 * Antipathy is an emotional response, as is sympathy, which implies neurological activity. Apathy is a lack of response. For a more colloquial version of the same fact, the old adage, "Hate isn't the opposite of love; apathy is." holds true. --Ceriel Nosforit (talk) 19:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Why the outdated link?
The only external link is to some verbose commentary from 2008 largely concerning apathy amongst youth who don't vote. Apathy seems to have taken on a new meaning to describe the absence of voting. Of all the emotions on the "emotions wiki list", the apathy one is the worst, but then what do you expect! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.151.102.163 (talk) 21:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect Grammar?
Im reluctant to edit the page as I'm not 100 percent sure but it seems to me a simple grammar error exists in this page. " 80% of people with Alzheimer’s get apathy, about 38% --->go<--- 45% of people with Parkinson’s disease". Should "go" actually be "to"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.172.129.176 (talk) 08:33, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Other causes?
I don't have any of the diseases listd on the page. My doctors believe my apathy was the result of going on & off too many ADHD medications, all which had negative side effects like hair loss & weight gain, in a short period of time. When the feelings went away, so did the medications. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.77.255 (talk) 02:34, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Redirection!?
Apathetic redirects here, but with that some people will probably mean the political view, which is not mentioned in the disambiguation page, nor can I find an article on it in wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.135.94.165 (talk) 20:08, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

So?
Who cares anyway... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.246.235.134 (talk) 22:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Ignorance AND apathy: I don't know and I don't care! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.232.157.78 (talk) 12:26, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

....who?
Who is Prescott? Who is Macaulay? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.1.195.4 (talk) 23:52, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

If apathetic.....how does one-if in fact the action is desired-reverse or minimize apathy? By definition it seems as if the solution is to medicate. However, there has to be a spiritual approach since it is an emotional deficiency. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.190.82.26 (talk) 13:35, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Poor Graphic
There is a graphic that someone put in here that is "clickable"... yet the fields that can be clicked on often yield incorrect results, such as APATHY is more apt to get WORRY, The fields are poorly 'set'. Just my two cents, I'm just passing through... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.119.225.80 (talk) 09:56, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Flow & Csikszentmihalyi
Can we get this interpretation into its own section rather than presenting it as the final definition? Would anyone object if I did this? Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" is FAR from being unilaterally recognised. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.149.82.103 (talk) 02:32, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Unsourced claim?
Is there any source out there that supports the 'maybe' that heroin causes apathy? There is enough anti-heroin bias here already so i'm guessing that the contributor is confusing 'short-term' effects of the drug(the effects last up to 8 hours for high doses and are essentially pure apathy) with long-term effects that are nothing compared to fx alcohol both psycho and physiologically except of course concerning addictive potential that pretty much rivals that of nicotine. Heroin doesn't cause any of the disorders listed before it so i'm guessing that long-term psychological withdrawal or social conditions along with other drugs users are very likely to be introduced to should receive the blame. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.148.66.254 (talk) 17:35, 18 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Indeed. There really should be more pro-heroin voices... Jutherine (talk) 09:33, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Apathy and nihilism
"In light of the insurmountable certainty of universal doom, apathy is the default mode of existential nihilism, and, as such, is not considered to be a pathological state by those who experience it. (See the works of Arthur Schopenhauer)."

I have not read the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, however, I am an existential nihilist. I would not consider myself apathic because of that philosophy, as I care about what happens in the world, even though I consider it utterly meaningless. The care I hold for it is emotional; my human responses to what I perceive. I have no control over my emotions, as they are irrational, whereas my philosophy, is rational. Apathy would perhaps be the intellectual response to everything as an existential nihilist, but apathy is an emotional state, not an intellectual state. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.236.241.192 (talk) 00:20, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

... 'impassivity...'?
these may be synonyms of this word but are not useful for a definition of the word and the concept to which it refers-- this should be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.134.162.188 (talk) 13:24, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Apathy as a result of overload
So a married man falls in love with another woman, he becomes apathetic towards his wife. Since it is hard to have the same love for both the overloading of emotional responses causes a feeling for one to be nulled and the a feeling of indifference towards that one comes to the forefront. In this example the person cannot deal with love for two so apathy takes over to reduce the emotional drain. I have watched this and felt this a couple of times in my life as I was growing up when I found a new love and the feeling for the old love became indifference. I believe the danger of apathy is towards reality. IF someone lives in the past, or a fantasy or dream then the the lethargic nature toward reality is "I don't care what happens'. Just my opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jjamesjr1954 (talk • contribs) 15:31, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

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Is apathy always so negative?
I'm not sure a state of apathy is always a negative development. I see it as holding the possibility for feelings of neutrality, and having consequent positive effects. The article speaks about apathy as if it were necessarily always an affliction. Certainly, when associated with a depressive episode, where the individual has feelings of 'not caring anymore' about anything much, leading to neglect of oneself and those around him/her, that is a negative development. But feeling apathetic or neutral about circumstances or situations in one's life that used to cause him/her a great deal of stress and and anxiety, surely that would be a positive development for any individual. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.78.124.0 (talk) 03:48, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

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Apathy toward religion
Needs section or an article. -Inowen (talk) 03:14, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

"Other" section severely lacks citations.
That's it. I won't remove it because I'm a new user and I don't feel I should be making such big decisions, but I felt this needs reviewing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Unknow0059 (talk • contribs) 14:35, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Stigmatizing wording
The introduction to the article (scroll to the beginning) would seem to stigmatize some kinds of apathy as being every kind of apathy--but I'm guessing a single aspect of apathy can be considered apathy. For instance, I'm guessing you don't have to have a lack of interest to be considered apathetic if you have no particular inner emotional reaction to the topic. I mean, let's say you hear some news that should be devastating, and you mentally care, and try to get yourself to feel appropriate emotions, but you don't feel anything. Is that apathy or not? The description doesn't tell us. Let's say you feel more emotional about not feeling the appropriate emotions than you do about the devasting news. If this isn't apathy, what is it? Note that in that hypothetical scenario you may or may not appear to be emotional (we're not considering emotional blunting here, which is about expression rather than feeling; we're talking about the feeling). 65.129.93.109 (talk) 23:59, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
 * For those who make new words for conditions, I would encourage you to make new words for the various qualities of apathy (whether or not apathy is an apt description--due to a larger stigma issue). 65.129.93.109 (talk) 00:03, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

"Don't know and don't care" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Don&. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 October 31 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. -- Tavix ( talk ) 00:17, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

SSRI-induced apathy
This is a real effect which should be included here, although it is not prevalent in the literature, as most of that comes from the pharmaceutical companies. 74.127.201.7 (talk) 10:17, 24 January 2023 (UTC)