Empathy: Its Nature and Limitations

Abstract

Empathy is usually regarded as an irreducible inborn capacity, operative from birth, for knowing the inner experience of another person without necessarily perceiving cues from that person about his thoughts or feelings. Merging of the type characteristic of early infant-mother symbiosis has often been considered the origin and basic component of empathy. However, merging is an illusory experience which cannot function as an active mechanism in the perceptual process, and the psychological structures needed for certain kinds of empathy do not commence development until eighteen months of age. The mechanism of empathy has also been ascribed to vaguely defined variants of identification. This is not a settled issue, but the idea is not compatible with a recent rigorous effort to define identification. The author offers a different theory of empathy, according to which empathy is a capacity that evolves with neuropsychological maturation and interpersonal interactions in the course of individual development. Empathy depends on sensory perception of behavioral cues from the object about his inner state. The empathizer compares these behavioral cues with one or more kinds of referent in this own mind which could be expressed by similar behavior. He then infers that the inner experience of the object qualitatively matches that associated with his referent. Limitations in the accuracy and scope of empathy are threefold: patients may limit or distort the expression of behavioral cues about their state of mind; referents available in the mind of the empathizer may be inadequate; and the inferential process is inherently uncertain. As a result, knowledge of another person's thoughts and feelings which can be acquired through empathy is limited. The theoretical understanding of empathy offered in this paper implies ways for improving empathic accuracy, especially by means of applying two or more kinds of referents to the same set of perceived cues.

La empatía como un pie en la puerta inter-étnica: facilitación de la percepción bilateral positiva entre los estudiantes judíos y árabes en Israel

“…There is a vast array of literature which advocates the potential of empathy as a facilitator of coping with social problems (e.g., Berger, 1984;Billikopf, 2004;Buie, 1981;Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, & Luce, 1997;Graziano, Gaertner, Flores Neimann, & Sneider, 2007;Rogers, 1975). According to Kohut (1981) empathy connects human beings more than love.…”

The role of empathy in case management: a pilot study

“…The literature reveals how the emphasis has invariably been placed on the care provider's ability to understand care recipients' inner world and concerns (Gallagher, 2006) as well as the care provider's ability to vicariously share care recipients' emotional experience (Buie, 1981). However; the distinction between the more reflective as opposed to the affective kind of empathy is of further relevance to social work education in view of the significant implications for the relationship between caretakers and providers.…”

Serie Een Bijzondere Casus: ‘Als een vreemde eend in de bijt?’

“…Niet alleen het begrip van de door de clie¨nten uitgesproken uitdrukkingen maar ook van hun taalstijlen is essentieel (Wiethaeper, Bouchard & Rosenbloom, 2004 (Buie, 1981), is een associatief proces nodig dat ontspringt uit gedeelde ervaringen en een gedeelde cultuur (Westen, 2002). Taal maakt onderdeel uit van dit proces en dient door de eeuwen heen om belevingen, cultuur, tradities en rituelen over te brengen (Zeddies, 2002;Hardin & Banaji, 1993;Hill & Mannheim, 1992 De onderbroken onderstroom veroorzaakt een storing in het interactionele veld waarin ik op dat moment geen of maar gedeeltelijk verbinding maak met de beleving van de clie¨nt.…”