Empathizing with Paul Bloom's Concerns, Criticisms and Judgments of Empathy

Paul Bloom is a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art.

Paul's article in the May edition of the New Yorker Magazine, titled "The Baby in the Well, The Case Against Empathy" expresses some of his concerns about the current enthusiasm for empathy.  We are developing some empathic dialog to listen to and empathically hear and respond to these concerns.

Vivian Bohl: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy

For me, the best definition of compassion is a Buddhist definition: it is the wish to alleviate the suffering of others and to eliminate the causes for suffering. Since I'm quite happy with that definition, we could discuss what this definition exactly means and also talk about how to become a more compassionate person."
Sub Conference: Science

 Lou Agosta: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy

"The short definition of empathy is that it is the capacity to know what an other individual is experiencing because (speaking in the first person for emphasis) I experience it too, not as a merger but as a trace affect or experience that samples the other’s experience. Thus, if one is overwhelmed by the other’s trauma and re-traumatized, one is not using one’s empathy properly. Simply stated, you are doing it wrong. "
Sub Conference: Science

Melanie Sears: How to Build a Culture of Empathy

 Melanie presents Nonviolent Communication at conventions, at universities, and at churches.  She has been interviewed on the radio and on TV and is the author of several books including: Humanizing Health Care with Nonviolent Communication.
Sub Conference: NVC and Health Care

Sylvia Morelli: How to Build a Culture of Empathy

Sylvia Morelli is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab at Stanford University. In her current research, she examines the neural and behavioral basis of empathy and perspective-taking, as well as the neural responses associated with feeling understood by others.

We held a wide ranging discussion about the nature of empathy, and her work on researching it.  In a recent study and paper, Sylvia explored the neural and behavioral consequences of feeling understood. 

Sylvia says, when we are understood, or empathized with, the pleasure centers of the brain light up. In other words, being empathized with feels good. "Behavioral research has demonstrated that feeling understood by others enhances social closeness and intimacy, as well as subjective well-being. In contrast, feeling misunderstood can be harmful to social relationships, leading to loneliness and isolation. However, it is still unclear why and how felt understanding exerts such a powerful impact on both interpersonal and intrapersonal well-being" 
Sub Conference: Science: Neuroscience

 Maureen O'Hara: How to Build a Culture of Empathy  

Maureen O'Hara is Professor in the Psychology Department at National University, La Jolla, CA and President Emerita of Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco. Working with American psychologist Carl R. Rogers, she helped develop the Person-Centered Approach to psychotherapy and large group process.  

More recently her writings have examined the relationship between the "big picture" changes underway and internal psychological adaptation. Combining her background as psychotherapist, organizational consultant and futurist, Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker nationally and internationally on the evolution of new ways of being in a changing world.  She was a contributor to the book, ' Empathy Reconsidered: New Directions in Psychotherapy' .

She writes, "In Rogers' original work a key component of the core facilitative conditions for individual growth is empathy. Empathy has since been shown to be the gold standard for effective facilitation in any growth-focused relationship. Empathy is commonly regarded as an individual-to-individual phenomenon in which one person senses the unspoken or inchoate thoughts or feelings of another. Our observations show that group or relational empathy may be even more important than individual empathy in the formation of conscious communities."
Sub Conference: Science

Aurangzeb Haneef: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Pakistan

In this dialog and interview, we talked about the role of empathy as being foundational to peace building. In Pakistan there is great polarization between the conservative and liberal social factions and they are not talking to each other with empathy. Aurangzeb sees empathy as being central to the the peace building process and he works to create dialog between the different social factions in his classes.
Sub Conference: Science

Dan Zahavi: How to Build a Culture of Empathy

The center has a grant for an "Empathy and Interpersonal Understanding" project that runs from 2011 to 2015.  The aim of the project is to contribute to investigate two questions:

1) What is empathy and what role does it play in interpersonal understanding?

2) To what extent does interpersonal understanding presuppose a common social and cultural background?

Dan has written numerous articles on the nature of empathy and the center is hosting workshops and conferences on the topic. One conference being held in May 2013, is on the  "Phenomenology of Empathy".    Sub Conference: Science

Riane Eisler: How to Build a Culture of Empathy and Caring

work in human rights has expanded the focus of international organizations to include the rights of women and children.

In her newest book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics,  Riane says;  "When children are taught the “normality” of domination and submission - and society doesn't offer alternatives - they often learn to go into denial and inhibit their capacity for empathy and consciousness,. They then build family, educational, religious, economic, and political institutions based on the these principles when they grow up. And so the cycle repeats itself generation after generation." "Ridged top-down rankings, weather family or state, are artificial barriers to trust, empathy, and caring."

Ian Reifowitz: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy

Ian Reifowitz teaches history at Empire State College of the State University of New York. He is the author of, Obama's America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity. 

In his article, Obama Calls for Empathy in Israel, Ian writes, "President Obama gave an absolutely terrific speech yesterday in Israel.

Robert Brooks: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy and Resilience

He is author or co-author of 15 books including: Handbook of Resilience and has written numerous articles about empathy. He writes, "In my workshops and writings I have consistently emphasized the importance of empathy as an essential skill for enriching our lives...  If empathy is not translated into behavior it will indeed be a "sideshow." However, when empathy serves as a guiding light for our behaviors, showing us the path that leads to compassion and caring, it becomes a potent force that will improve the lives not only of our children but ourselves as well. The more we bring together theory, skills, and actions, the more we can engage in activities that permit us to lead purposeful, fulfilling, caring lives.."

 "a common characteristic of individuals who are successful as business leaders, teachers, parents, spouses, or healthcare professionals is their ability to be empathic. Empathic people are skilled in placing themselves inside the shoes of another person and seeing the world through that person’s eyes. It is not surprising that Daniel Goleman listed empathy as one of the main components of emotional intelligence. In my activities as a therapist and consultant as well as in my personal life, I have come to believe that empathy is implicated in all of our relationships, impacting on the satisfaction and effectiveness with which we interact with others."
Sub Conference: Home & Family

Maryam Sakeenah: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Pakistan

Maryam Sakeenah is a social worker, teacher, and freelance writer living in Lahore, Pakistan. She  teaches Literature, Islamic Studies and Sociology.

She is leading a project for virtual education for underprivileged school children. 

Maryam also authored a book documenting Islamic and Oriental responses to the Clash of Civilizations, titled Us Versus Them and Beyond: An Oriental-Islamic Rejoinder to the Clash of Civilizations Theory.

I talked with Maryam from her home in Lahore, Pakistan about her article, The Murder of Human Empathy.  This was her response to the recent attacks on Christian homes in Lahore. She writes,   "Empathy is curbed and limited through narrow, parochial banners of ethnicity, nationalism, race and creed so that the empathic drive does not extend to the out-group. The out-group is then ‘otherised’. However, a more severe form of this is dehumanization of the other, often institutionalized by the social superstructure: state, media, education, religion."
 

She calls for leaders (especially religious leaders) in Pakistan to stand up and advocate for fostering empathy for all people.  "Empathy humanizes and civilizes. Its suppression intensifies secondary drives like narcissism, materialism, violence and aggression. The task of religion, education and the media must be to bring out the empathic sociability stretching out to all of humanity..."
Sub Conferences: Education 

Robin Youngson: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Healthcare

 Julian Walker: How to Build a Culture of Empathy with Yoga

Julian has been teaching yoga since 1994 and practicing Mind-Body Healing since 1997. His approach to yoga combines a 20 year fascination with spirituality, science, psychology, music and poetry. He maintains a busy bodywork practice and teaches ongoing classes, chakra-based workshops and transformational retreats. He also writes and blogs on the intersection of spiritually, science and psychology. In this discussion, we explored how yoga can foster empathy.   
Sub Conference: Yoga

Scott Churchill: How to Build a Culture of Empathy

Scott D. Churchill is Professor of Psychology at the University of Dallas and Editor of The Humanistic Psychologist. His work focuses on development of phenomenological and hermeneutic methodologies. Currently he is studying interspecies communication with Bonoboos. Scott wrote the article, Encountering the Animal Other: Reflections on Moments of Empathic Seeing.  He writes, "Unfortunately, there have not been many psychologists willing to entertain the notion of empathy or intuition as a reliable or even valid mode of access to psychological life of others."

In this article Scott explores the first person (self-centered), third person (detached omnipotent) and empathic second person perspective. "As a whole, the field of psychology has generally provided for the first person perspective to be legitimate means of access only to one's own private experience, while insisting that we must observe all others' experience from a neutral "third person" perspective."
Sub Conference: Science

Bob Sornson: Dialogs on How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Education

building classroom and school culture to support the development of social and behavior skills, and offering parent training.

Bob  is the author of a number of books including: Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy.  "When Emily asks her big sister what the word empathy means, Emily has no idea that knowing the answer will change how she looks at people...  Empathy is the ability to notice what other people feel. Empathy leads to the social skills and personal relationships which make our lives rich and beautiful, and it is something we can help our children learn. This book teaches young children the value of noticing how other people feel. Were hoping that many parents read it along with their children." 
Sub Conferences: Education 

James O'Dea: How to Build a Culture of Empathy & Peace

He is on the extended faculty of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and its former President.

James is author of, Cultivating Peace: Becoming a 21st Century Peace Ambassador. 

"When we can really put ourselves in the shoes of the other, when we can reach new depths of empathy, then we can be effective ambassadors of peace....
 

Without empathy there is no way forward for civilization. Individuals who lack empathy are trapped in selfish motivations and ego fixations: they have not learned how to see themselves in the predicament of others. Politicians who lack empathy relate to others through a primitive in-group inclusion or out-group exclusion. This degree of psychological development cannot negotiate any form of middle ground. Conviction is reduced to simplistic binary codes such as "You are either with us or against us.""
Sub Conference: Peace & Empathy

Mark Honigsbaum: How to Build a Culture of Empathy or Not

Mark wrote some articles about the role empathy, The Politics of Empathy and Barack Obama and the 'empathy deficit' which was published in the Guardian. We talked about his articles and views on the role of empathy in society

Mark said, "I'd be very happy to talk to you about empathy just so long as you understand that I am primarily an historian of medicine so, while I am all for promoting greater compassion and awareness of the predicament of those less fortunate than myself, I am wary of this notion of empathy as intrinsically pro-social and moral. This strikes me as a very recent notion, traceable to the birth of the psy sciences around the turn of the last century. Moreover, if alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged is to be more than a feel-good sound bite it has to be married with a real political agenda, which means making choices and taking sides (in my opinion of course)"

Sub Conference: Journalism and Media

Diana Castle: How to Build a Culture of Empathy with Acting and Imagination

Diana Castle is a first generation American born of a holocaust survivor. She attended a fine arts high school before graduating with a BFA in theatre with a music minor. She began her career in both musicals and dramatic roles in NYC, in national tours and regional theatre, as well as on stages internationally.
 

 "Diana Castle’s THE IMAGINED LIFE™ – Acting As The Art of The Empathetic Imagination- is a creative philosophy and practical application of your natural empathetic imagination to the art of acting...

Diana works with actors, singers, writers and directors of diverse backgrounds from all over the world in an effort to illuminate an experience of alternative perspectives, facilitate catharsis and create community through her creative philosophy and the empathetic imagined life experience."

We had a fun, dynamic and almost 2 hour discussion about the nature of empathy and how to embody it through acting. We explored how to not just talk about empathy, but embody it.
Sub Conference: Arts