A cogent, gorgeous examination of empathy, illuminating the myths, the
science, and the power behind this transformative emotion
Empathy has become a gaping fault line in American culture. Pioneering
programs aim to infuse our legal and educational systems with more
empathic thinking, even as pundits argue over whether we should bother
empathizing with our political opposites at all. Meanwhile, we are
inundated with the buzzily termed “empathic marketing”—which may very well
be a contradiction in terms.
Cris Beam -
Empathy: The Gaping Fault-Line in American Culture
"Empathy has become a gaping fault line in American culture. In this talk,
Cris Beam will discuss empathy’s practice and potential—and the ways we
can harness it in new and unusual ways. She will explore the latest
findings and read from her new book, I Feel You: The Surprising Power of
Extreme Empathy."
Mirror
neurons
Empathy
Down
Bullying
Corporate
Push
Empathy as a
skill or a way of being
worried
about empathy as a skill.
how is it me
imagination what your are experiencing
how is it me imagination what your are experiencing if I was you
= How is it
for me imaging what I'm going to be experiencing.
"Cris Beam, assistant professor at William Paterson University and writer
(To The End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care, I am J),
turns to the concept of empathy and how it’s used in marketing, criminal
justice, classrooms, and in her own life, in her new book, I Feel You: The
Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018)."
"Are we born with a certain level of empathy? Stanford
psychology professor Jamil Zaki explores that question in his new book,
"The War for Kindness," which looks at the declining level of empathy in
society. He argues that, like a muscle, empathy must be trained or it can
atrophy.
Cris Beam, author of “I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme
Empathy,” similarly provides methods for exercising and improving one's
capacity for empathy. Zaki and Beam join us to discuss the science of
empathy, and ways to recognize and respect the emotions of others. Tell
us: how do you practice empathy in your daily life?"
I FEEL YOU The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy By Cris Beam 251 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $26.
"Depending on your point of view,
Cris Beam’s “I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy” might
seem either laughably behind the times or naïvely, maybe even willfully,
ahead — so far beyond our collective horizon as to be pretty darned
invisible. After all, ours is an age when the president is more concerned
with building walls than feeding and educating poor kids, Congress is
polarized to the point of paralysis and just about everyone else is
seemingly focused on getting theirs first.
We’ve become a nation of hard cases, armed to the teeth, with fury
battling cynicism for primacy as the default emotion. In this world, a
book with a cover featuring one bonsai tree leaning lovingly toward
another does not appear likely to find much of a place. And yet here is
Beam passionately asserting that “the pendulum is swinging back toward
feeling, back toward love and the communal. Back toward empathy."
I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy
--by Knowledge @ Wharton, syndicated from knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu,
Jun 26, 2018
"The use of the term “empathy” has been expanding in recent years, from
workplaces to prison systems to conversations about gun control.
Research into mirror neurons in the 1980s and 1990s brought sharper
focus to the notion of empathy, but it has since acquired numerous
dimensions, according to Cris Beam, a professor at William Paterson
University in New Jersey and the author of a new book titled, I Feel
You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy. Empathy is ingrained in
the psyche from birth, although sociopaths and psychopaths may be born
with a “disability” — that of missing empathy. Empathy skills also can
be enhanced. Beam explored the various facets of empathy in an interview
on the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111.
Following is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Knowledge@Wharton: Why has empathy become such an important topic?"
KIRKUS
REVIEW:
I FEEL YOU: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy
by Cris Beam
Using empathy to achieve a kinder, gentler society.
After enduring the crushing deterioration of a 10-year relationship,
journalist and educator Beam (To
the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care,
2013, etc.) offers an intelligent three-part exploration of empathy’s
cultural impact. An opening section devoted to understanding and
utilizing empathy charts the groundbreaking neuroscientific studies of
“mirror neurons” in the brain’s sensory processing regions.
The
author then addresses the mixed results regarding schools that implement
the teaching of empathy to both children and adults, largely due to the
lack of agreement about what the sensation actually is. Beam effectively
uses both personal anecdotes and a wide variety of interviews with
people who have gained insight and growth from embracing empathy in
addition to those who have become emotionally damaged due to a lack of
empathy. She also touches on artistic empathy through the fascinating
real-life story of a woman who works intimately with synthetic human
replica dolls, work that “explores what’s possible in the hidden,
cut-off spaces, what’s possible in the closet.”
"Author Cris Beam discusses her new book, 'I Feel You: The Surprising
Power of Extreme Empathy'
The use of the term “empathy” has been expanding in recent years, from
workplaces to prison systems to conversations about gun control.
Research into mirror neurons in the 1980s and 1990s brought sharper
focus to the notion of empathy, but it has since acquired numerous
dimensions, according to Cris Beam, a professor at William Paterson
University in New Jersey and the author of a new book titled, I
Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy. Empathy
is ingrained in the psyche from birth, although sociopaths and
psychopaths may be born with a “disability” — that of missing empathy.
Empathy skills also can be enhanced. Beam explored the various facets of
empathy in an interview on the Knowledge@Wharton
show on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the full podcast using the
player at the top of this page.)"
A cogent, gorgeous examination of empathy, illuminating the myths, the
science, and the power behind this transformative emotion
"Empathy has become a gaping fault line in American culture. Pioneering
programs aim to infuse our legal and educational systems with more
empathic thinking, even as pundits argue over whether we should bother
empathizing with our political opposites at all. Meanwhile, we are
inundated with the buzzily termed “empathic marketing”—which may very
well be a contradiction in terms. "
"A cogent, gorgeous examination of empathy, illuminating the myths, the
science, and the power behind this transformative emotion
Empathy has become a gaping fault line in American culture. Pioneering
programs aim to infuse our legal and educational systems with more
empathic thinking, even as pundits argue over whether we should bother
empathizing with our political opposites at all. Meanwhile, we are
inundated with the buzzily termed "empathic marketing"--which may very
well be a contradiction in terms."
