It’s hard to comment on “overall tone”, since any given person’s experience of a conference will be unique to them.
I don’t mean this as contradictory to your impressions, but I’ve personally found the EA community to be tremendously empathetic (as I had expected from people who choose to devote their lives to helping others), and this has extended to my own experience with mental health. I’ve had really excellent support from CEA’s team when I was dealing with a depressive episode, and when I was trying to help a friend who had experienced a psychotic break.
I agree with the writer that the overall tone of EA conferences and in general, in the US is not one of empathy and compassion.
It’s hard to comment on “overall tone”, since any given person’s experience of a conference will be unique to them.
I don’t mean this as contradictory to your impressions, but I’ve personally found the EA community to be tremendously empathetic (as I had expected from people who choose to devote their lives to helping others), and this has extended to my own experience with mental health. I’ve had really excellent support from CEA’s team when I was dealing with a depressive episode, and when I was trying to help a friend who had experienced a psychotic break.