It is impossible not to empathise with the men who blazed this lonely trail: some 600 Chinese navvies alone perished in explosions, avalanches and rockfalls.
And how dowdy does Hedda's needy maiden aunt (Julie Hamilton) really have to look in order to make sure you empathise with the unhappy bride's marital prison?
Visitors try to empathise with victims and imagine the motivations of the perpetrators, he says, and then visitors have a sense of relief that they can step back into the safety of their own lives.
Psychologists and criminologists would later speculate that West was a sociopath - unable to feel normal human feelings or empathise with his victims, possibly due to a brain injury he had suffered in a motorbike accident.
Some have argued the move to degree-level training for nurses - from next year all nurses entering training will have to complete a three-year course - has meant they have lost some of the ability to empathise and show compassion.