Imo.... House Has A Fair Bit More Empathy Than Wilson. This Bothers Both Of Them Immensely.

imo.... house has a fair bit more empathy than wilson. this bothers both of them immensely.

i think house is easy to perceive as unempathetic because his actions are often counter to acting with empathy or at least like... seem that way. but i think this is kind of a mistake and also kind of diminishes his responsibility in his actions? he absolutely understands when he's hurting people on purpose and he knows how they feel- that's, in part, why he does it. he is very hurt when people around him suffer in real ways and gets incredibly distracted by it. house lashes out when people are suffering in ways he cant meaningfully change because it hurts him and hurting that person is causing an emotion he has control of.

in my opinion wilson has a pretty normal amount of empathy for a doctor, which i think is maybe slightly less than an average person. i think he feels a kind of void about this though and i think he massively obsesses over being a good-enough person; wants to think morally good thoughts and feel morally good things and one of those things (to him) is a level of empathy he doesn't really have. i think this perceived failure leads him to extremes to compensate (like give up a large piece of his liver to a patient who sucks)