SCIENCE COLUMN | Levine: What does it take to feel someone else’s pain?
Last month, Jewish writer and Nobel Laureate Eli Wiesel was quoted in The New York Times as wishing a particular punishment on Bernie Madoff, the mastermind behind the Ponzi scheme that essentially destroyed Wiesel’s charity.
“I would like him to be in a solitary cell with only a screen, and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, ‘Look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child, look what you have done,’...
I wonder if Mr. Madoff's feelings about his actions will change as the criminal justice system subjects him to his own personal losses: freedom, reputation, financial stability, hope for the future. I do not think he has the capability to empathize with his victims at all. Mr. Wiesel's punishment would not be effective in this case, I'm afraid. Mr. Madoff will only feel sorry for Mr. Madoff, another manifestation of his social psychopathic personality. Perhaps subjecting him to videos of his family members describing the effects of his actions on their lives might work. But I'm not hopeful.