It is impossible not to empathisewith 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 empathisewith the unhappy bride's marital prison?
Visitors try to empathisewith 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 empathisewith his victims, possibly due to a brain injury he had suffered in a motorbike accident.