Empathy. Emotional empathy or empathy with another is

Empathy The ability to identify with another person, to feel what he feels (See also:).

Brief explanatory psychological and psychiatric dictionary. Ed. igisheva. 2008 .

Empathy

(from the Greek empatheia - empathy) - comprehension of the emotional state, penetration-feeling into the experiences of another person. The term "E." introduced by E. Titchener, who generalized the ideas about sympathy that developed in the philosophical tradition with the empathy theories of E. Clifford and T. Lipps. Distinguish emotional E., based on the mechanisms of projection and imitation of the motor and affective reactions of another person; cognitive E., based on intellectual processes(, etc.), and predicative E., manifested as a person to predict affective reactions(see) another in specific situations. As special forms E. allocate empathy - the subject of the same emotional states that another person experiences, through identification with him, and sympathy - the experience of one's own emotional states about the feelings of another. An important characteristic E. processes, which distinguishes it from other types of understanding (identification, acceptance of roles, decentration, etc.), is underdevelopment reflexive side (see), isolation within the framework of direct emotional experience. It has been established that the empathic ability of individuals increases, as a rule, with the growth life experience; E. is easier to implement in case of similarity of behavioral and emotional reactions subjects.

Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: PHOENIX. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

Empathy

Comprehension of the emotional state, penetration, empathy into the experiences of another person. The ability of an individual to parallel experience those emotions that arise in another individual in the course of communication with him. Understanding another person through emotional empathy with his experiences. The term was introduced into psychology by E. Titchener. Differ:

1 ) emotional empathy - based on the mechanisms of projection and imitation of motor and affective reactions of another;

2 ) cognitive empathy - based on intellectual processes - comparison, analogy, etc.;

3 ) predicative empathy - manifested as the ability to predict the affective reactions of another in specific situations.

How special forms of empathy stand out:

1 ) empathy-experiencing the same emotional states that another experiences, through identification with him;

2 ) sympathy - experience eigenstates emotional in connection with the feelings of another.

An important characteristic of the processes of empathy, which distinguishes it from other types of understanding, such as identification, acceptance of roles, decentration, and so on, is the weak development of the reflective side ( cm.), isolation within the framework of direct emotional experience. It has been established that empathic ability usually increases with the growth of life experience; empathy is easier to implement when the behavioral and reactions of emotional subjects are similar.

Dictionary of practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998 .

Empathy Etymology.

Comes from the Greek. empatheia - empathy.

Category.

The phenomenon of communication.

Specificity.

The ability of a person to involuntarily experience those emotions that arise in another person in the process of communicating with him. The individual begins - against conscious control - to share the moods of another person. Due to this, a greater mutual understanding is achieved, which is very important for psychotherapeutic work.

Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000 .

empathy

(from Greek. empatheia- empathy).

1. Non-rational human knowledge of the inner world of other people ( empathy). Ability to E. - necessary condition for the development of such a professional quality as insight in a practical psychologist (consultant, psychotherapist).

2. Aesthetic E. - empathy with an artistic object, a source of aesthetic pleasure.

3. Emotional responsiveness of a person to the experiences of another, a kind of social (moral) emotions. E. as an emotional response is carried out in elementary (reflex) and in higher personal forms (sympathy, empathy, rejoicing). At the heart of E. as social cognition and higher forms e. as an emotional response mechanism lies decentration. It is human nature to experience a wide range of empathic reactions and experiences. In higher personal forms, E. expresses the attitude of a person to other people. Empathy and sympathy differ as a person's experience for himself ( egocentric E.) and for another ( humanistic E.).

Empathizing, a person experiences emotions identical to those observed. However, empathy can arise not only in relation to the observed, but also to the imaginary emotions of others, as well as in relation to the experiences of the characters. works of art, cinema, theater, literature (aesthetic empathy). Cm. .

At sympathy a person experiences something different than the one who caused him an emotional response. Compassion encourages a person to help another. The more stable a person's altruistic motives, the wider the circle of people whom he, sympathizing with, helps (see. ).

Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

Empathy

   empathy (With. 661) (from the Greek empatheia - empathy) - penetration into the inner world of another person due to the feeling of belonging to his experiences. term empathy a personality trait is also determined - the ability for this kind of understanding and empathy.

In recent years, the term has been wide use in domestic psychological literature, but so far in everyday speech (as well as in the universal dictionaries of the Russian language) is absent. Borrowed from the English language, where it has been used for a relatively long time (English - empathy). In this case, as in most similar cases, this borrowing seems to be a terminological excess, a naive tribute to Westernism, since the content of the concept empathy quite exhaustively conveyed by the Russian word .

In most domestic publications, which introduce this concept, there are references to K. Rogers, to whom his authorship is often attributed. Indeed, in Rogers' concept, the concept empathy plays a key role, and it was thanks to Rogers that he was introduced into Russian psychological terminology at the end of the 80s, when attempts to fill the suddenly arisen ideological vacuum gave rise to the cult of humanistic psychology (it was Rogers who became the prophet of this cult and its newly appeared icon). However, the term was not invented by Rogers - in English dictionaries the word empathy first appeared in 1912, when the future master was still going to school and catching moths on his father's farm. The word got into English psychological terminology even earlier thanks to E. Titchener, who found it as an English equivalent to the German concept (feeling), which has an even longer history. It is characteristic that in German the traditional German form is still used to refer to this phenomenon, it is this word of the native language that the Germans use when talking about empathy.

The first concept of empathy was formulated in 1885 by the German psychologist Theodor Lipps (1851-1914). He considered it as a special mental act in which a person, perceiving an object, projects his emotional state onto it, while experiencing positive or negative aesthetic experiences(in the works of Lipps, first of all, it was about the perception of works of fine art, architecture, etc.). According to Lipps, the corresponding aesthetic experiences are not so much awakened by the artistic creation as they are brought into it. So, when perceiving inanimate forms (for example, architectural buildings), there is a feeling that they are full of inner life (“gloomy house”, “cheerful facade”, etc.). This explains, in particular, some geometric illusions - for example, a vertical line is perceived to be longer than in reality, since the observer feels himself as if stretched upwards. Ideas about the subject's empathy in linear and spatial forms were subsequently developed in various works in the psychology of art.

The concept of empathy was also one of the most important in the "understanding psychology" of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911). Dilthey considered the ability to empathize as a condition for understanding the cultural-historical, human reality. Various cultural phenomena arise from the "living whole human soul”, therefore, their understanding, according to Dilthey, is not conceptualization, but penetration, as if transferring oneself into the holistic state of mind of another and its reconstruction based on empathy. Note that this interpretation refers to 1894.

The concept of empathy closest to the modern one was formulated by Z. Freud in 1905. In his work “Wit and its relation to the unconscious”, Freud pointed out: “We take into account the mental state of the patient, put ourselves in this state and try to understand it by comparing it with our own” . Characteristically, empathy has an important place in the conceptual apparatus of psychoanalysis. In particular, this term among others, it appears in the recently published Dictionary-Handbook of Psychoanalysis by V.M. Leibin, as well as in C. Rycroft’s Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis and other similar publications. It is important that in both editions mentioned, empathy emphasizes the preservation of an objective view of the origins and nature of the experiences of another person. Thus, V.M. Leibin points out: “Empathy involves the identification of the analyst with the patient. To some extent, it resembles a projective identification. At the same time, empathy is not such an identification with the patient, due to which the analyst completely identifies himself with the latter. On the contrary, having the opportunity to become involved in the inner world of another person, the analyst retains the ability to distance himself from him in terms of presenting his own unbiased interpretations and developing a strategy of psychoanalytic therapy acceptable for a particular analytical situation.

Let us note once again that the works of Lipps, Dilthey and Freud were originally published in German, and in all the cases mentioned, this concept was described by the term empathy, which English-speaking psychologists did not blindly borrow, but found an equivalent more consonant with their native language.

In the humanistic psychology of C. Rogers, empathy was the main technique of "client-centered therapy", in which the psychologist enters into deep, empathic contact with the client and helps him to realize himself as a full-fledged personality, capable of taking responsibility for the decision own problems. Along with the unconditional acceptance of the client and the so-called congruence (another linguistic monster, which we are too lazy to find an equivalent), empathy is one of the components of the so-called psychotherapeutic triad of Rogers - a triple set of conditions, without which, according to the supporters of this approach, the psychotherapeutic process cannot be may be complete. Empathy as a way of psychotherapeutic communication presupposes a temporary life, as it were, of a different life, a delicate, without preconceived assessments and judgments, being in the personal world of another, sensitivity to his constantly changing experiences. Joint interpretation of exciting or frightening problems helps them to experience them more fully and constructively and, ultimately, such a change in structure. which makes it more flexible, creative, open to positive experience.

Let's give the floor to Rogers himself. This is how he describes empathy as one of the components (conditions) of his psychotherapeutic triad.

The third condition can be called empathic understanding. When the therapist feels the feelings and personal meanings of the client at every moment of time, when he can perceive them as if from within, as the client himself feels them, when he is able to successfully convey his understanding to the client, then the third condition is fulfilled.

   I suspect that each of us knows that such an understanding is extremely rare. We do not often feel such an understanding and rarely show it ourselves. We usually offer instead a completely different, different type of understanding: “I understand that you are not all right”, “I understand what makes you do this”, or “I had such troubles, but I behaved completely differently” . These are the types of understanding that we usually receive or offer to others, these are - evaluative understanding from an external position. But when someone understands how it feels or looks to me, without the desire to analyze or judge me, then I can "bloom" and "grow" in this climate.

The study confirms this commonly held observation. When the therapist, while being himself, can capture the client's every moment inner life as he sees and feels it, then change is likely to occur. Rogers K. A look at psychotherapy. The formation of man. M., 1994. S. 106)*.

*[The translation has been somewhat edited by the author of these lines; for example, another linguistic perversion - therapist- replaced by a more familiar word therapist(although this is unlikely to keep therapists from continuing to call yourself this ridiculous and stupid word)].

At the same time, it is important to emphasize essential feature empathy (noted, by the way, by Freud). To have empathy means to perceive the subjective world of another person as if the perceiver were that other person. This means feeling the pain or pleasure of another as he himself feels it, and treating, as he does, the causes that gave rise to them, but at the same time not for a minute forget that “as if”. If the last condition is lost, then this state becomes the state of identification - quite unsafe, by the way. Indicative in this regard is the experience of Rogers himself, who in the early 1950s became so "feeling" into the inner world of one of his clients, who suffered from a severe disorder, that he himself had to resort to the help of a psychotherapist. Only a three-month vacation and a course of psychotherapy with one of his colleagues allowed him to recover and realize the need to observe certain limits of empathy.

This moment seems to be especially important in connection with the absolutization of the role of empathy, which is clearly taking place in recent times. In a number of works, empathy is considered as one of the key factors in the successful professional activity of a psychologist. It is emphasized that the ability to empathize can be formed with the help of special training techniques (this is not surprising - with the help of training today we are taken to form anything, up to the meaning of life).

It seems indisputable that empathy is a valuable professional quality of a psychologist whose practical activity is connected with direct contacts with people, helping them in solving their problems. At the same time, it is especially important not to forget about its subjective limits, going beyond which is fraught with professional “burnout”. In other words, a psychologist must be able to feel the feelings of another person, but not so much as to turn other people's problems into his own.

Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005 .

Synonyms:

See what "empathy" is in other dictionaries:

empathy- (from the Greek empatheia empathy, sympathy) the ability of a person to identify (identify) one of his I images with an imaginary image of the “other”: with the image of other people, living beings, inanimate objects, and even with linear and ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Act 1: Unconscious projection of yourself

“Since I broke up with his father, he is constantly rude, does not obey, fights with other children. I just don't know what to do!" Marina complains about her 6-year-old son. “If I were you, I would have a tough talk with his father. Finally, let him take care of his upbringing! It's his son too! Why do you have to drag this cart alone?!” her friend Emma is outraged.

“If I were you” - we habitually pronounce these words, unaware that they actually mask our sense of awkwardness. We involuntarily feel it when we hear a confidential statement from another person. And ready-made formulations allow you to instantly fill a pause. “In addition, the frankness of the other, his life collision awakens our own anxieties and fears,” says psychologist Elena Stankovskaya. - And we unconsciously project them onto someone else's situation, as if it happened not to him, but to us. Figuratively, this can be described as follows: on one of the cells of the chessboard there is a piece of another person - and we come up, remove it and substitute our own in its place. At this moment, we do not take into account at all that each person is unique, which means that his feelings, desires, needs are also unique. That is, we do not worry (really) about our interlocutor. We are full of thoughts about ourselves, immersed in our own emotions.

When we invite another to “take his place,” we take this place with our own landmarks, our history. Mistakenly attributing your feelings to others. This is exactly what happens to Emma. Marina tells her about her difficulties in raising her son. But Emma "turns the arrows" on the father of the child. This is an echo of her own difficulties in relations with her partner: unable to admit and express her anger at him, she “let off steam”, coming up with sharp remarks for her friend.

The wording “I would be in your place” also helps those who see the world in black and white to close from someone else’s problem. “The encounter with an ambiguous situation violates the picture of the world they understand and causes anxiety,” explains Elena Stankovskaya. “And then there is nothing left but to insist that the problem has only one solution.”

Beneficial Attention

Physiological empathy

- a reflex that makes us unconsciously copy the behavior of another person - postures, manner of speaking, facial expressions. The stronger this effect is, the more the other person feels understood.

cognitive empathy

- the ability to understand the subtleties of the thoughts and reasoning of the interlocutor.

emotional empathy

- the so-called "feeling", the ability to feel the emotions and experiences of another person. It is good when we have both cognitive and emotional empathy. If we are only capable of cognitive, then there is a great risk that we will begin to use deep knowledge about another person without showing careful attitude to him and even resorting to manipulation. This behavior is typical, for example, for narcissists. Conversely, it is difficult for someone who is only capable of emotional empathy to distance themselves from other people's emotions, to distinguish them from their own.

benevolence

– positive attitude to people, which is expressed in the ability to support; criticize actions, but not the person himself; celebrate the positives and forgive the weaknesses.

Altruism

- unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

- a combination of benevolence, emotional empathy and altruism.

Act 2: Violence against another

“Yes, you are probably right,” Marina says uncertainly. “I’ll think about it…” “Of course I’m right! Emma exclaims. - I know you well, you will immediately feel better, I'm sure! What is there to think about? I wouldn't doubt it for a minute if I were you!

From the side it is annoying to see that our friend doubts and does not do what, in our opinion, could help him. At such moments, we forget that he may not yet be ready for the next step, that he needs time for this. There is a temptation to decide everything for him. “By imposing our opinion on another, we indirectly tell him: I understand better what you need now,” explains Elena Stankovskaya. “In other words, we question his ability to be the author of his life, we do not allow him to be himself.”

The temptation to act as a parent who can teach the life of a “child” is especially great today: there are so many books on psychology around, and it seems to many that they have in their hands the keys to all the secrets of the soul. In fact, this is how our unconscious desire is manifested to assert itself at the expense of another, to gain power over him.

The expression "to take the place of another person" in literally means to drive someone out of his place, to usurp this place in order to place himself in it. Saying "I would be in your place", we thereby say: "Listen to how I will talk to you about you." Or simply: "Listen to me!" At this moment, we are focused on ourselves, and the other is forgotten, but we pretend that we care about him ...

Act 3: Exchange of experience

Marina enters an Internet forum of parents and talks about problems with her son. She asks for help: “Have any of you had a similar situation? Share how you coped! Answers immediately appear: “I understand, I went through all this!” "I was in your place..."

If we have experienced the same as another person, it is easier for us to imagine his thoughts and emotions, to show empathy. That is why support groups, both virtual and real (including psychotherapeutic ones), are so effective. In this case, the words "I can stand on your place are quite acceptable, and often even desirable.

“Those who find themselves in a difficult situation see that they are not alone,” explains psychologist Marina Khazanova. - The people around him (group members) experienced something similar and managed to cope. It does not matter here who you are - a top manager or a postman, everything social roles recede into the background. No one condemns, teaches, evaluates, on the contrary, sympathizes and supports.” In addition, the group can get useful information. Marina, for example, was recommended good books on education.

But even if we went through the same painful experience, this does not mean that the recovery will be the same. It is worth avoiding the temptation to insist on your “recommendations,” Elena Stankovskaya warns: “It’s good when someone who shares experience understands that he is not the only possible one. And leaves space for another own decisions". “Our experience, as well as our life in general, is the highest value,” Marina Khazanova is sure. - And value cannot be imposed, it can only be offered, given to those who accept it as a gift. So you can ask: do you want me to share with you? And be prepared to be rejected.

Act 4: Empathic relationship

“Your son is between two families, between two parents. Imagine yourself in his place!” Listening to the words of another friend of hers, Marina saw the situation more clearly. It simply did not occur to her to look at what was happening through the eyes of her child.

Between the words "I would be in your place ..." and a real attempt to imagine yourself in the place of another person, there is big difference. In the first case, we do not take into account another opinion, only our own. In the second case, on the contrary, we try to stop being the center of our attention, move away from our point of view in order to look at the situation with different eyes. “The ancient Greeks proposed a universal mechanism that helps us understand the other from his depth, and this is nothing more than refraining from judgment,” explains Marina Khazanova. - By refusing to look at a person through the prism of our ideas and assessments, we get a chance to understand the other in his integrity, to feel what his experiences are. different from ours!” “At the same time, it is important to remember that our impression may be erroneous,” adds Elena Stankovskaya. - And in the course of the dialogue, constantly check yourself: do I understand the interlocutor correctly? That's the only way to really get close to his feelings."

But such active listening also implies sincere, disinterested sympathy, emphasizes Marina Khazanova. “To sympathize means to experience, trying to understand and support. This experience should be distinguished from another situation, when we also put ourselves in the place of another person, understand how bad it would be for us in this place, and worry more about ourselves, because it’s hard for us to look at his suffering.

Method author active listening Carl Rogers noted another the most important feature: "Feel the client's personal world as if it were our own" *. Of course, a friend is not a psychotherapist. But the “as if” rule holds true for all helping relationships. It helps not to confuse yourself with another person, not to identify yourself with him. “In contrast to the arrogant position of those who consider themselves capable of taking the place of another, the empathic position is essentially modest, since it recognizes our limitations,” emphasizes Marina Khazanova.

And this position is more difficult, because at first it makes us feel worthless. After all, we do not so much speak ourselves as we listen, trying to "feel into" the other. But this is the most valuable thing we can give. “The other person finally feels understood and accepted,” says Marina Khazanova. “No one condemns him or teaches him how to live. There is a striking effect: he begins to better understand himself, his capabilities and his limits. That is, it becomes more holistic.” And at such moments, he can find the best solution for the problem for him.

Rephrase the last phrase of the interlocutor or the words that caught your attention. This will make sure that we understand each other correctly.

Ask neutral questions about what was said.

Summarize of what was told.

Do not judge or interpret.

Show empathy- to empathize with the emotional state of another person.

Young Canadian photographer Hana Pesut has been working on the Switcheroo project for two years. It involves couples that she met on the street and on trips.

Refers to "On Systemic Neurophysiology"
Definition and description given in http://psychology.net.ru/dictionaries/psy.html?word=1143 (and generally repeated in many other dictionaries of psychological terms and articles):

Empathy (from the Greek empatheia - empathy) - comprehension of the emotional state, penetration-feeling into the experiences of another person.
The term "empathy" was introduced by E. Titchener, who generalized the ideas about sympathy that developed in the philosophical tradition with the empathy theories of E. Clifford and T. Lipps. There are emotional empathy based on the mechanisms of projection and imitation of the motor and affective reactions of another person; cognitive empathy, based on intellectual processes (comparison, analogy, etc.), and predicative empathy, manifested as a person's ability to predict the affective reactions (see Affect) of another in specific situations. As special forms of empathy, empathy is distinguished - the experience by the subject of the same emotional states that another person experiences through identification with him, and sympathy - the experience of one's own emotional states about the feelings of another.
An important characteristic of the processes of empathy, which distinguishes it from other types of understanding (identification, acceptance of roles, decentration, etc.), is the weak development of the reflective side (see Reflection), isolation within the framework of direct emotional experience.
It has been established that the empathic ability of individuals increases, as a rule, with the growth of life experience; empathy is easier to implement in case of similarity of behavioral and emotional reactions of the subjects.

More details about the emergence of the concept and what meaning they put into it are written in Penetrating empathy. Very important:
At the same time, it is very important to emphasize the essential feature of empathy (noted, by the way, by Freud). To have empathy means to perceive the subjective world of another person as if the perceiver were that other person. This means feeling the pain or pleasure of another as he himself feels it, and treating, as he does, the causes that gave rise to them, but at the same time not for a minute forget that "as if".
If the last condition is lost, then this state becomes the state of identification - quite unsafe, by the way. Indicative in this regard is the experience of Rogers himself, who in the early 1950s became so "feeling" into the inner world of one of his clients, who suffered from a severe disorder, that he himself had to resort to the help of a psychotherapist. Only a three-month vacation and a course of psychotherapy with one of his colleagues allowed him to recover and realize the need to observe certain limits of empathy.
This moment seems to be especially important in connection with the absolutization of the role of empathy, which is clearly taking place in recent times.
To be able to "put yourself in the place of another" you need to have a good idea of ​​this other, to have his model in your head. Only in this way can one not fall into the illusion, transferring one's own stereotypical ideas to another.

In studies conducted in adolescence, gender differences in attitudes towards various objects of empathy are beginning to be detected for the first time. Teenage girls generally show a greater degree of empathy for animals than boys. This fact can be considered the result of earlier assimilation of moral norms by girls, as well as a greater orientation of girls to communication, their desire to have recognition in interpersonal relationships, while boys are more focused on substantive achievements.
...
The ability to empathize is the basis for friendships, which occupy a huge place in the interpersonal communication of a teenager. Empathy, in turn, is based, as G. Kraig writes, on social inference, "because if you do not know what the other person feels, you will not be able to sympathize with him."
...
Empathy as a mental personality formation, having reached its expression during puberty, is further a stimulator of prosocial behavior and altruism. In a number of foreign studies concerning adolescent and adolescence, describes the effect of the transfer of empathic experiences of adolescence to adolescence and mature age with the preservation of the emotional sign. "If, as a child and a teenager, a person had empathic mutual understanding with his parents, then in adulthood, an empathic response to the environment does not cause negative experiences, and vice versa: some people throughout their lives transfer hatred of their parents to other people" . The effect of the transfer of empathic experiences is also expressed in the fact that, once manifested in relation to an object, empathy can spread to other objects to which the person was previously indifferent.
...
A significant correlation was found in indicators of empathy for the heroes of fiction...

Empathy can be manifested in relation not only to real-life, but also fictional characters, which undoubtedly excludes the immediacy of the transmission of the "empathic signal", but speaks of the ability to consciously or unconsciously put oneself in the place of someone about whom there is a certain idea. Reading about the experiences of a character, we are only as capable of empathizing with him as we already understand him or we think we understand: that he fits into some well-known stereotype. By individual signs in the course of the narrative, we judge experiences, according to our model. And this can significantly, to the point of opposite, diverge from the assessment of the same other people, which additionally testifies: there is no certain external source such information.

In the client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers and the psychoanalytic self-psychology of Heinz Kohut, empathy plays a key role. Rogers considered empathy to be the fundamental attitude of the therapist in the therapeutic relationship and the key to changing the personality of the client. Kohut defended the position that the main tool in psychoanalytic research is the analyst's empathy. In addition, Kohut placed the empathic responsiveness of the child's environment at the center of his theory of narcissistic self development. Through their influence, empathy has been recognized by most therapeutic schools as a foundational skill for the therapist to create a therapeutic climate.
...
Empathy is complex phenomenon, which is difficult to determine. In this regard, it makes sense to start with a definition that is shared by most authors. The starting point, in our opinion, can serve as Mead's statement (Mead, 1934) that empathy involves the ability to take the position of another. In other words, empathy involves accepting the role of the other and understanding the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the other person.
...
However, empathy is not just an identification with the experience of another individual. Consider a simple example: a patient starts crying. What the therapist directly observes are tears and stale breath, indicating a lump in the throat. The therapist compares these signals with their own similar experiences. Thus, the therapist arrives at hypotheses about the emotional state of the patient. Together with the patient, the therapist experiences some pain and sadness, but this does not mean that he is in merger with him. The therapist experiences these feelings only temporarily. At the same time, he is aware that these experiences are related to the patient, which allows him to maintain some distance from them. In other words, the therapist not only finds experiences in himself that seem similar to what he observes in the patient, but also makes allowances for the divergence of experience.

To complete the picture, in terms of the definition of the phenomenon of empathy, it is worth familiarizing yourself with how this phenomenon was represented and what various speculative researchers endowed it with. So, in Empathy as a Subject of Research in Contemporary Western Philosophy:
In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the phenomenon of empathy, traditionally understood as the ability of a person to imagine himself to others and bodily-sensually experience his perceived/remembered/imaginary forms and supposed states, has increasingly become the object of attention of philosophers (E.Ya. Basin, E.V. Borisov, A. J. Vetlisen, H. G. Kögler, O. Yu. Kubanova, R. A. McCrill, H. Peter Steves, M. Sawicki, D. V. Smith, V. P. Filatov, Y. M. . Shilkov).
...
According to Husserl, empathy reveals the essence of social cognition and therefore it can be attributed not so much to the sphere of the ontology of the Other (transcendental and intertemporal prerequisites of empathy are considered there), but to the sphere of the epistemology of the Other (there is considered an immanent-transcendental, positional-quasi-positional cognitive structure of empathy). ). Empathy includes both the pre-reflexive knowledge that the Other is, and the pre-reflexive and conscious assumption of what the Other is. In the phenomenology of E. Husserl and E. Stein, empathy is endowed with a rather high epistemological status.
The modern American philosopher D. Smith even more emphasizes the epistemological component of empathy, when, along with empathic identification and empathic perception, he emphasizes "empathic judgment" when getting to know the Other. Such a judgment presupposes getting used not only to feelings, but also to thoughts, especially the perception of the Other. I conclude not that the Other is, not exactly what he is, but what he experiences. "I can empathically judge what the Other is experiencing only if I have the ability to reproductively imagine that I am experiencing instead of the Other."
...
G.-G. Gadamer, analyzing the role of pre-understanding and tradition as universal conditions for the possibility of interpreting texts, therefore endowed empathy with a low methodological status of hermeneutics, because he considered it the ability of a sensory-intuitive fusion of the understander with the understood, such a psychological fusion in which it is impossible to distinguish the meaning inherent in the understood. He believed that with the help of empathy, it is impossible to objectively and reliably reconstruct the meaning inherent in the text, since in order to understand the text, it is necessary first of all to know the language in which it is presented, the linguistic tradition of the historical past when it was created. Intuitive understanding does not give such knowledge. Only if there is a real or imaginary dialogue between the understander and the understood on the basis of a common linguistic tradition, one can, according to Gadamer, speak of encouraging prospects for interpretation.

Comparing ideas about the mental phenomenon of "empathy", one can single out its main features: it is not given from birth, but is acquired with the experience of knowing the object of empathy, as a property to imagine oneself in the place of another, not necessarily living (it can be a fictional character, even a fairy-tale one). imaginary) or currently living, and not even necessarily a person. And this ability also gives accurate results(in the case of fictional characters - adequacy with the ideas of the author), how well the properties, reactions of the other are familiar.
But all of the above applies not only to what the word "empathy" is usually applied to. In the same way as models of behavior of living beings are built and developed, in general, all objects of the perceived (an object is an abstraction that does not exist in reality, something that stands out in perception as a certain set of properties manifested holistically by one "object" represented "indivisibly").
I beg your pardon for the fact that the further text will require considerable effort in its understanding for those who do not sufficiently understand the mechanisms of the brain. However, it carries the most immediate and rigorous meaning, which becomes available upon careful reading or after familiarization with the popular presentation of the ideas of systemic neurophysiology. But the meaning of what has been said is not lost, regardless of the understanding of the implementation of specific mechanisms in the case of a careful reading.
Everything that is perceived from the outside and is not indifferent to the personality (has a non-zero product of novelty and significance) is remembered as a collection of more than elementary properties, and subsequently recognized by these properties.
This is how recognition is organized from the most elementary visual images (circles, squares, stripes, dots), in the "visual analyzer" of the brain, to objects that have signs from various sensory systems(visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory), the recognition functions of which are implemented according to the same principle: as adaptive detectors of a set of perceived features (see Illustration of brain memory organization). In this there is no fundamental (and in general for our perception) difference between any objects of perception, from simple to the most complex.
Common to all objects is that its recognition occurs depending on more general conditions perceptions (i.e., signs of conditions also supplement the totality of all signs that give confidence in recognition), the most general of which is the emotional state, and more clarifying: the place of action, the time of action, the current needs of the body, the presence of other objects somehow related to possible impact. In each of these conditions, an object is recognized in inseparable connection with the meaning, its meaning for us in all known variants of influence and the results of this influence, an idea of ​​which is given by the life experience of previous contacts with the object. With each new contact, it more and more specifies the set of possible conditions in which the object manifests a new property for us, causing our attitude towards this: positive or negative, which determines in the future whether we will avoid contact in these conditions or strive for it.
Topologically, in the neural network of the brain, such feature detectors are represented by columns of neurons - specialized detectors in all areas of the brain, and are the most general and universal principle of its organization: from analysis for elementary features of perception - through the synthesis of increasingly complex detectors of objects of perception - to specific action programs - effector detectors. This is a well-studied and detailed structural organization of a neural network. Described both morphologically and modelically at the level of perceptron circuitry and their mathematical formalization (see the selection of factual materials of the Study of Psychical Phenomena).
In all cases of the development of ideas about an object, we try on its impact on us, depending on the personal system of attitude - significance, which prompts whether it is good or bad for us.
The object "I", as a distinguished set of features of oneself among the environment, in this respect is no different from the models of any other objects, and as many distinguishable models of the Self are formed as significantly distinguishable conditions were present in personal life experience. This is especially true of the most general, emotional states. In each of these states, the object I can exhibit properties that are sometimes opposite to properties in other conditions. Thus, the model of behavior in a state of narcotic trance ( alcohol intoxication or others) this is a personality that differs sharply in properties, having its own moral and ethical ideas. In cases long experience narcotic trance, such a personality may be more detailed than all the others.
The focus of attention (the point of awareness) thus limits the channels of perception so that the most important information(importance corresponds to the product of the response of the detectors of the new to the response of the system of significance) was associated in the general ensemble of excitation with the model of the object I, which is active (represented by the excitation in the neural network of the detectors of recognized features) under these conditions. The model I receives channels of perception, channels of possible actions (which are determined by previous experience) are slightly opened for it (not fully activated). Each of these channels is colored by the attitude to the result obtained (associated with the activity of the significance system), which makes it possible at the moment when it becomes necessary to act (there is a starting stimulus in perception), to choose the most preferable option from all.
But in the same way, the focus of attention can organize channels of perception - response for any other model of objects, not even one of the models self. This trick is done by hypnotists, forcing a person to feel like a different person, to incarnate into him. This also happens in some mental disorders, when the current self-models become so associated with negative experiences that it becomes impossible to activate them with attention. And then the model of the Self in childhood turns out to be the one that has not yet been blocked. A person begins to fully and quite naturally realize himself in another model of the object. He can even be made to incarnate into a great artist or scientist, and he will fulfill this role to the extent that he has the prevailing ideas about this.
In narcotic trances, a person can incarnate not even into a living being, but into a stone, into a flame, into a demon, into God, into anything that exists or is fictional, which has a representation in the form of an object model.
Normal, remaining itself, just like opening channels options actions, with the current object I, on which there is a focus of attention, the activity of other objects of perception can be associated, making it possible to comprehend (evaluate the significance) of them in the context of existing conditions. We get the opportunity to represent the reactions of another object to the extent that we know it well and have already encountered similar reactions. And if not, then we can only assume how possible (not contradictory with its properties) for him are those reactions that are generally inherent in these conditions. And the degree of sympathy can be from the slightest stimulation of the object's behavior options to the complete identification of oneself with it (full transfer of the focus of attention to it).
Certain manifestations of such sympathy are called empathy :) But in fact, this is a much more general phenomenon than what we have agreed to call empathy. It is clear that one can sympathize in this way not only with models of other objects, but also with one’s own models in other conditions, pitying oneself, worrying about what happened or what is to come, putting oneself in a different situation and trying to understand how we will feel in it. To empathize, even in some possible sense, without putting oneself on the side of the empathized, one can empathize with a fictional character or a flower thrown by the road, in general with anything from the simplest objects of perception to the most complex ones - empathize with a people or culture, an idea or an object of artistic creativity.
I think that now it is clear why at the beginning of this article no attempt was made to give a strict definition of empathy implemented in the memory organization of the brain. After that, it becomes clear what are the general properties and possible applications of this phenomenon - it makes perfect sense. And, in particular, to avoid the illusions of understanding that are so characteristic of this abstraction. Especially in the well-established ideas that it is worth mentally putting yourself in the place of any other and it will become possible to reliably imagine what exactly he feels and how he can act. For the latter, you need to have a very large experience of very close relationships, but in many ways it does not guarantee the desired complete understanding ... after all, people change constantly with each contact with reality :) This generally provides them with the ability to understand and be in accordance with the changing reality, not becoming more adapted monsters by methods of speciation, but purely mentally, throughout their own lives.

And at the end - a living example ...
Here is what one girl said about how the conditions arose for her to start developing her empathy. Moreover, she immediately did not pay attention to these conditions and the development process seemed to go on by itself:

in childhood - even before school .... or at the earliest school ..... I really liked to command the girls ...... and somehow they all left me ...... and I seem to burst into tears ..... and my parents laughed ..... and dad said: well, who would like to be commanded ...... here you try to put yourself in their place ... think about how they feel. ... and then you will understand how, when and with whom you need to talk ....... and after that ...... I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I remember that everything has changed ...........
...
I felt exactly how it would feel ....... but I can’t explain how ....... but if I really, really wanted, I understood almost always ..... I just pulled away, as it were, from the situation for a moment. ... only for a moment .... and what I was about to say, I said as if to myself, and at that time I myself was a different person - my interlocutor ..... and often after that I changed the finished phrase. ..... I lived like this for several years..... even for many years.............
...
but sometimes I am asked to explain - why this or that person does this ..... and then I can think, concentrate, feel - and explain his behavior ..... although I may be completely unfamiliar with him .. ...

This girl, since she was prompted in childhood with the idea of ​​"putting herself in the place of another," was so carried away by this idea that, like no one else, she purposefully gained empathic experience for communication, all the time correcting it in dialogue.

In childhood (and not only), we sometimes, on our own or with the help of someone else's prompting, make our own, personal discoveries, discovering something very interesting in that it can certainly be used effectively (so it seems to us). As soon as such an amazingly joyful thought comes to mind, this becomes the beginning of the development of ideas in this direction. The development of both one's own skills and understanding in general.
Of course, one must be ready to notice this new thing at all, and appreciate its importance, so that it becomes possible at all to make a discovery and develop the skill of using it.
Those who are not ready, not having the necessary ideas or not being able to see the importance, will pass by without developing their new quality. The extreme case is children raised by animals and generally not able to develop something from the sphere of human sociability.
Therefore, there are people who have developed empathy very strongly, and there are almost insensitive to other people's experiences. And this occurs quite early with the formation of personality. Outwardly, everything looks like that some have the ability, while others do not. In fact, all "capabilities" are acquired as a result of the development of personal life experience. However, considerable differences in the potential branching of the axons of the brain, which make it easier to establish connections for some structures and difficult for others, give very significant differences in the initial conditions for the development of specific abilities.

Almost all people quite early learn to understand other people around, referring to some quality - type, and the types of these others are not so diverse. Involuntarily immediately seen refers to the most typical. And the experience of understanding the habits of this type is growing all the time. But if you constantly check how accurate the assumption is, then there will be many disappointments. However, assignment to a particular type is a very personal operation and rarely correlates with reality.

Empathy also includes the ability to accurately determine the emotional state of another person based on facial expressions, actions, gestures, etc. . Also, empathy means the ability to very accurately feel and feel the emotional state of a person without seeing it. An empath is a person who is able to perceive the experiences, emotions and feelings of another person, at the level of their own emotions. We can say that an empath is an emotional telepath who is not able to read thoughts, but easily perceives the emotional picture of the state of another person. Psychologist Carl Rogers defines empathy as follows: To be in a state of empathy means to perceive the inner world of another accurately, with the preservation of emotional and semantic shades. As if you become this other, but without losing the feeling of “as if”. So, you feel the joy or pain of another, as he feels them, and you perceive their causes, as he perceives them. But the shade “as if” must necessarily remain: as if I am happy or upset.

Empathy - understanding the emotional state of another person through empathy, penetration into his subjective world. This or that level of empathy is a professionally necessary quality for all specialists whose work is directly related to people (officials, managers, salespeople, personnel managers, teachers, psychologists, psychotherapists, etc.).

Emotional empathy or empathy with another is

Empathy is an emotional feeling or empathy for another. Through emotional response we understand internal state another. Empathy is based on the ability to correctly imagine what is happening inside another person, what he experiences, how he evaluates the world around him. It is known that empathy is the higher, the more a person is able to imagine how one and the same event will be perceived by different people, and also the more clearly he is able to understand the right to existence of these different points of view.

Researchers ambiguously define this phenomenon. T.P. Gavrilova interprets empathy as an emotional phenomenon, believing that empathy is manifested in the ability to respond to the experiences of another. A number of researchers (A.G. Kovalev, T. Shibutani) consider empathy as "mental communication, i.e. as understanding the inner life of another person. However, many psychologists (A.A. Bodalev, A.V. Petrovsky, G. F. Mikhalchenko) do not oppose intellectual and emotional empathy. Empathy - emphasizes A.V. Petrovsky, - usually acts as a complex psychological formation in which cognitive and emotional processes are closely related to each other. According to N.N. Obozov in empathy manifests the unity of all three components of interpersonal interaction. Depending on the predominance of one of them, N.N. Obozov distinguishes three types of empathy: understanding, empathy, sympathy. If the cognitive component prevails in the process of empathic reflection, then empathy manifests itself in the form of an accurate and adequate understanding of the state of the object of interaction. The dominance of the affective component leads to a high emotional involvement in the state of another person, i.e. empathy. Effective empathy includes a behavioral component that allows you to provide effective support to another person. Effective empathy, as emphasized by G.F. Mikhalchenko, is a professionally significant property of the teacher's personality, which determines the effectiveness of his interaction with teachers.

The perceptual basis of empathy is the recognition of facial expressions, since It is the face that gives the most information about the emotional state of a person. Therefore, the ability to "read faces" (i.e., to see and understand the emotional state from facial expressions) is more associated with the possibilities of personality-oriented communication between a teacher and students.

As a result of studying the empathic capabilities of teachers, S.B. Borisenko found that "the source of empathy is the contradiction in the emotional world of the individual between their own experiences and the perceived experiences of another person. This contradiction gives rise to the need to restore the comfort of feelings" (10.21). Moreover, the author emphasizes with age, this need can be humanized and the master teacher can take on the form of an organic desire to establish friendly, close relationships with students. Well-developed processes of emotional identification and personal reflection contribute to the emergence of this need.

Studies (S.B. Borisenko (22), G.F. Mikhalchenko (110)) found that there is some difference between ordinary empathy and pedagogical empathy. As a rule, a teacher, interacting with students and showing empathy, sympathy, assistance, not only seeks to establish with them comfortable relationship, but tries to achieve an educational effect through the expression of empathy: to "remove" any destructive experiences of students that push him to antisocial action, to revive good feelings and aspirations in him. Hence, the main function of pedagogical empathy can be recognized as the provision of such assistance to the student, which contributes to the development of his personality.

Reflection is a mechanism of self-knowledge in the process of communication. It is based on the ability of a person to imagine how he is perceived by a communication partner.

The activity “paradigm” in psychology, sociology, philosophy, pedagogy, and so on is now being developed not only by domestic but also by foreign specialists. Foreign psychologists, as well as domestic ones, in their works paid attention to.

Discussing the issue of temporality and mental trauma, we are based on the position that the connection between them must be revealed through a subject who experiences a traumatic event, which is a temporal event and has time.

You decided to send your child to a kindergarten or a nursery: But the question is - how will he perceive the fact that his mother, who used to be constantly nearby, will now appear only in the evening, and instead of her, she will have to be with the teacher all day.

Empathy.

The term itself "empathy" was introduced by E. Titchener, who generalized the ideas about sympathy that developed in the philosophical tradition with the empathy theories of E. Clifford and T. Lipps. The word "empathy" itself comes from the Greek "empatheia", which means "empathy". But, nevertheless, in the literature there are many interpretations of the concept of "empathy". For example, in the school of psychoanalysis, empathy is considered as a property of a doctor that provides effective interaction with the sick. Lipps interprets empathy as the perception of an aesthetic object - it is both an act of enjoyment and knowledge. Empathy is a way of knowing an object - aesthetic pleasure, feeling into the object through the projection of one's feelings and identification with it (Gavrilova T.P., 1975). Egan J. (2000) considers empathy as a way of psychological analysis that allows you to penetrate and feel into emotional states persons interacting in one way or another life situation. He believes that empathy is the ability to understand and penetrate the world of another person, as well as to convey this understanding to him. Petrovsky A.V. (1995) gives similar definition empathy: "Empathy is the comprehension of the emotional state, penetration, empathy into the experiences of another person, that is, empathy is the comprehension of the emotional states of other people by the individual, penetration into their experiences." And in the psychology of interpersonal relationships and personality psychology, the most common definition of empathy is the definition proposed by Diamond: “Empathy is the imaginary transfer of oneself into the thoughts, feelings and actions of another and structuring the world according to his model.” In modern psychology, empathy is usually interpreted either as the ability to understand the world of experiences of another person, or as the ability to join the emotional life of another, sharing his experiences.

Speaking of empathy, one cannot but recall K. Rogers. One of his early definitions of “empathy” was as follows: “To be in a state of empathy means to perceive the inner world of another accurately, with the preservation of emotional and semantic shades. As if you become this other, but without losing the feeling of “as if”. So, you feel the joy or pain of another, as he feels them, and you perceive their causes, as he perceives them. But the shade “as if” must necessarily remain: as if I am happy or upset. If this shade disappears, then the state of identification arises. (1975). Later, K. Rogers describes empathy as a process: “The empathic way of communicating with another person has several facets. It implies entering into the personal world of another and staying in it "at home". It includes constant sensitivity to the changing experiences of the other - to fear, or anger, or emotion, or embarrassment, in a word, to everything that he or she experiences. This means a temporary life in another life, a delicate stay in it without evaluation and condemnation. This means capturing what the other is barely aware of. But at the same time, there are no attempts to open completely unconscious feelings, since they can be traumatic. This includes communicating your impressions of the other's inner world by looking with a fresh and calm eye at those elements of it that excite or frighten your interlocutor. This involves referring often to the other to check one's impressions and listening carefully to the responses one receives. You confidant for another. Pointing to possible meanings experiences of another, you help him experience more fully and constructively. Being with another in this way means putting aside your points of view and values ​​for a while, in order to enter the other's world without prejudice. In a sense, this means that you are leaving your "I". This can only be done by people who feel safe enough in a certain sense: they know that they will not lose themselves in the sometimes strange or bizarre world of the other and that they can successfully return to their own world when they want to. (1975).

Thus, summarizing the existing definitions of empathy, we can distinguish four of the most common:

Understanding the feelings and needs of another person;

Feeling into an event, an object of art, nature;

An affective connection with another person, sharing the state of another person or group;

It is known that there are different kinds empathy. And, having analyzed the works devoted to the phenomenon of empathy, we see the following types of it, which are distinguished by most authors (Petrovsky A.V., 1995; a brief psychological dictionary, 1999; Egan J., 2000, etc.):

Emotional empathy is based on the mechanisms of projection and imitation of the motor and affective reactions of another person.

Cognitive empathy is based on intellectual processes - comparison, analogy, etc.

Predicative empathy is manifested as the ability of a person to predict the affective reactions of another person in specific situations.

Empathy and sympathy are distinguished as special forms of empathy. Empathy is the experience by the subject of the same emotional states experienced by another person, through identification with him. Empathy is the experience of one's own emotional states about the feelings of another person.

In addition, there are references in the literature to channels of empathy, which show the significance of a particular parameter in its structure (Boiko V.V., 2001):

Rational channel of empathy characterizes the focus of attention, perception and thinking of a person on understanding the essence of any other person, on his condition, problems and behavior. This is a spontaneous interest in the other, opening the floodgates of the partner's emotional and intuitive reflection.

The emotional channel of empathy characterizes the ability of an empathic person to enter into emotional resonance with others - to empathize, to participate. Emotional responsiveness becomes a means of entering the partner's energy field. Understanding the inner world of another person, predicting his behavior and effectively influencing him is possible only if there has been an energy adjustment to the partner. Compassion and empathy play the role of a link between people.

Intuitive channel of empathy allows a person to anticipate the behavior of partners, act in conditions of scarcity background information about them, based on the experience stored in the subconscious. At the level of intuition, various information about partners is closed and generalized.

Attitudes that promote or hinder empathy.

The effectiveness of empathy is reduced if a person tries to avoid personal contacts, considers it inappropriate to show curiosity about another person, convinces himself to be calm about the experiences and problems of others. Such speculations sharply limit the range of emotional responsiveness and empathic perception.

Penetration in empathy regarded as important communicative property a person that allows you to create an atmosphere of openness, trust, sincerity. Relaxation of the partner promotes empathy, and the atmosphere of tension, unnaturalness, suspicion prevents disclosure and empathic comprehension.

Identification - important condition successful empathy. This is the ability to understand another with the help of empathy, putting oneself in the place of a partner. Identification is based on lightness, mobility and flexibility of emotions, the ability to imitate.

In addition, in many sources, the authors emphasize one important feature of the process of empathy, which distinguishes it from other types of understanding, such as identification, acceptance of roles, etc. - this is a weak development of the reflective side, isolation within the framework of direct emotional experience.

Alexander F. (1937), in turn, found that the degree of empathic involvement in the world of another person can be different. And since empathy is a skill, it can be learned. Alexander F. believes that the message of understanding does not necessarily involve expression through words. Given enough time, people can create what is called "empathic relationships" in which understanding is communicated through a variety of different, sometimes subtle, non-verbal ways (glance, gesture, etc.). In addition, the empathic capacity of individuals increases with increasing life experience. In addition, empathy is easier to implement if the behavioral and emotional reactions of the subjects are similar.

Based on the idea of ​​Alexander F. in modern literature, one can distinguish three levels of empathy which a person acquires during his life through communication with the people around him (Egan J., 2000; Agramakova L.M., 2000, etc.):

the deepest level- this is a “way of being”, a way of “being together” with another person, a way of understanding the nuances and complexities of his inner world;

second level- empathy as a way of professional presence, a way of professional contact with people as clients, whose inner life is complex and diverse;

last level is empathy as a communication skill that can be learned to use; but the technology of empathy communication will be useless unless it is an expression of the consultant's way of being, that is, the empathizer.

More about one important feature empathy says in his theory Agramakova L.M. (2000). She believes that the phenomenon of empathy can be represented both at the subconscious and conscious levels. At a subconscious level, empathy is impulsive and acts as an instinct for empathy. At a conscious level, empathic understanding is regulated and manifests itself in some people in the development of general intellectual abilities, others have empathy and other moral qualities, while others have an optimal combination of both. Empathy is closely related to the structure of the personality of the individual, the system of values ​​inherent in him. Agramakova L.M. suggests that empathy is a genetically earlier form and is more characteristic of younger students. Sympathy as a more complex form of development of consciousness appears later and is typical for adolescence. As the child develops mentally, empathy becomes the source of his moral development.

Empathy - what is it, levels and development of a person's ability. Empathy diagnostics, test and games

The ability to understand others and empathize with people is the basis of productive human communication. Feeling and understanding the feelings of the interlocutor allows you to build long-term, strong relationships, it is easy to find mutual language in study and work. Ultimately, being able to do so can become a life's work. Anglo-American psychologist Edward Titchener defined these phenomena as empathy. Translated from Greek, this word means “passion”, “suffering”, and the concept itself implies the ability to feel any emotional state of another person, differentiating from one’s own feelings.

Definition of the word empathy in psychology

Psychologists explain the following meaning of the word empathy: an irrational understanding of another person, a sense of her inner world, the ability to partially experience the same emotions as the interlocutor, while separating them from their own perception. There are different levels and forms of empathic ability, differing in the degree of its intensity. Psychologists consider people's tendency to empathy to be the norm, while the complete identification of their experiences with the feelings of the interlocutor, or vice versa - the absence of any sensation of the other person - is an abnormal state of affairs.

People with empathic abilities different strength are called empaths. Depending on the level, there are weak, functional and professional. People who do not have the ability to feel others or are so poorly developed that they cannot even be considered a weak type stand apart, but this is rare. Types of empaths and their features:

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• Weak. They perceive other people's emotions well, but have little control over their own, are prone to stress and overload.
• Functional. They are distinguished by a high level of empathic abilities and the ability to take control over them.
• Professional. They easily determine what other people feel, they are able to analyze emotions and manage them.

The role of empathy in communication

The feeling of empathy directly affects the quality of life of individuals in society. Research conducted by psychologists shows that people with a higher level of empathy are more successful, achieve their goals more easily and move up the career ladder faster than those with a low level of empathy. A person who knows how to understand others is generally more benevolent, friendlier, he has more friends and a stronger family. He does not try to once again cause a feeling of guilt, does not require too severe punishments for misconduct.

Showing another person that you understand him is important not only in close relationships, but also in business relationships. Even if there is a conflict situation, adequate people who know how to listen and hear will be able to find an effective solution and compromise much faster than interlocutors without developed empathy under similar conditions. Empathic abilities help people of art: artists - to tell their thoughts in the picture, actors - to get used to the role, the writer - to convey the character of the characters.

What are the types of empathy

There are two forms of empathy: empathy and empathy. The first involves identifying oneself with a person, feeling his sensations. The second form is the experience of one's own feelings that have arisen in relation to the emotional sensations of another. In addition to forms, empathic abilities are classified into types, which will be discussed in more detail below. There are three of them: emotional, cognitive and predicative empathy.

emotional empathy

Emotional empathy is understood as a form of mental activity that is based on projecting and imitating the reactions of another person. It can be called "everyday" empathy: as a rule, the communication of most people in the vast majority of situations is based on this form - when one person sees the feelings of the interlocutor and projects them onto himself.

cognitive

Empathy includes not only the ability to emotionally feel the feelings of another person, but also the ability to intellectually analyze his words, actions and behavior, in other words, to understand a person with the mind. This is how a form of cognitive empathy works, based on analysis and comparison. This type is used in conducting scientific discussions and during controversy.

Predicative

The predicative form of empathy is the ability to analyze and predict what feelings this or that situation will cause in the interlocutor. People in everyday life use the predicative empathic form, imagining themselves in the place of another person and determining how he would react to certain conditions, but few people know the scientific name.

Empathy levels

There are several levels of empathy, which are characterized by the degree of interest in the thoughts, feelings of other people and the intensity of sympathy and empathy shown. Conventionally, psychologists distinguish 3 degrees of empathy: the first is low, the second is medium, and the third is extremely high. More about the levels of ability to feel and understand others:

1. People with the first level of empathy seem detached and indifferent, they have few friends, because they are not interested in the feelings, thoughts, actions of others. As a rule, representatives of the first level rarely understand others.
2. The second level of empathy is characterized by relative indifference to what others think and feel, but at the same time the ability to empathize. Representatives of the second level prefer to deal with emotions, to keep them under control.
3. The third level of empathy is the rarest, because people of this type are able to empathize, sympathize with others, understand others better than themselves. They are sociable and friendly. However, representatives of the third level find it difficult to get rid of the dependence of public opinion.

Factors that form empathy in children

Empathy is an innate feeling that is observed in all people with rare exceptions. Even babies, being in the same room, communicate empathically (one cry, everyone repeats). In the future, the ability to understand and accept others either becomes better or dulls depending on upbringing, position in society, social circle. The development of empathy in preschoolers occurs due to environmental conditions:

• Trusted, love relationship between family members.
• Observation of how adults are able to empathize and empathize with others.
• Good attitude of parents to pets and street animals. It is important to explain to the child that little brothers, although very different from humans, can also experience pain if they are pinched or injured. Keeping pets contributes to the development of a high level of empathy.
• A sympathetic reaction to sad, sad events that is not hidden from the child - watching how mom and dad or other relatives worry about strangers helps the baby put himself in the place of a suffering person.

After Small child has already accumulated some life experience, it is clear how his sense of empathy is increasing. If the baby does not show empathic abilities, you should pay attention to this and do special exercises. People who, as they grow older, do not learn to understand and accept others, will experience difficulties in building business, family, and friendship relationships.

How to develop a sense of empathy: exercises

It is necessary to develop and train empathy from childhood if there are signs that the child does not acquire this skill on his own. There are several pedagogical methods the formation of empathic ability: this is communication, exercises in the form of a game. Special training is used even among adults in groups if a person with little or no empathy wants to develop.

• "What feeling?" For this exercise, participants are given cards on which an emotion is written - sadness, anger, joy, puzzlement. A person tries to show this feeling with facial expressions, and the task of the other interlocutors is to guess the emotion.
• "Monkey in front of a mirror." Participants are divided into pairs, someone takes the role of a monkey, the other becomes a mirror. The task of the “monkey” is to show everything that she pleases with facial expressions, and the “mirror” must repeat. After five minutes, the roles are reversed, and the hosts of the game evaluate who was the best.
• "Telephone". The participant of the game takes the phone and begins to pretend that he is talking to someone (first he invents with whom) - with a friend, grandmother, neighbor, boss. The rest must guess who the host is talking to.

Empathy Diagnostics - online test

Empathy is the ability of a person to feel others. Many people notice this skill in themselves, but how to determine your empathic level, understand how high it is? For this, psychologists have developed short test 25 questions that will allow you to better understand yourself. Walkthrough psychological diagnostics empathy, you can find out how well you understand others.

1. Do you feel happy when listening to certain musical compositions?
2. Are your moods influenced by those around you?
3. Do you experience discomfort if someone near you cries or sighs while watching a movie?
4. Do you yourself get upset when you encounter a crying person?
5. If you see that the company stranger feels lonely, are you upset?
6. Are you made to worry by people who can easily get upset over a trifle?
7. Do you feel intense distress when confronted with helpless older people?
8. Do you get nervous while watching a movie?
9. You need to give the person bad news. Will you be nervous before the conversation?
10. Can you remain calm when everyone around you is panicking/excited/frightened?
11. If you see animal mistreatment or suffering, do you get upset?
12. Do you think crying with happiness is stupid?
13. When people around you are upset about something, do you also lose your calm?
14. Do you tend to make decisions without considering other people's attitudes towards him?
15. Do you experience unpleasant feelings when people cannot contain their emotions?
16. Do you take the problems of your loved ones to heart?
17. Someone nearby is nervous. Will it make you nervous?
18. Can you remain indifferent when everyone around you is worried?
19. Do you like to watch how people are given gifts and how they accept them?
20. Do you think: worrying about the plot of a book or movie is useless and stupid?
21. Babies cry for no reason?
22. Do you get angry when you see someone being mistreated?
23. When reading, do you feel for the characters as if everything is happening in reality?
24. Do you want to get a profession that is based on communication with others?
25. Do songs that sing about love evoke a lot of feelings in you?

The information presented in the article is for informational purposes only. The materials of the article do not call for self-treatment. Only a qualified doctor can make a diagnosis and make recommendations for treatment based on individual features specific patient.

empathy

Brief explanatory psychological and psychiatric dictionary. Ed. igisheva. 2008 .

Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: PHOENIX. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

Dictionary of practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998 .

Psychological dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000 .

Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005 .

What is empathy or the ability to empathize with another person and how to develop it?

To fully communicate with other people, a person must be able to understand their feelings and experiences. This is the key to building strong relationships in society. The ability that allows a person to share the emotions of other people is called empathy. Let's take a look at what empathy is, how it's useful, and whether it can be developed.

What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability of a person to perceive the feelings and emotions of other people, while not identifying them with their own. In Greek, the word "empathy" means "compassion". The term "empathy" appeared in psychology thanks to the American psychologist Edward Titchner, who studied this phenomenon and compiled a classification of the principles of empathy.

People who have the ability to empathize are called empaths. This ability is expressed to varying degrees in everyone - from weak to very strong. Some empaths become so involved in another person's experiences that they become completely absorbed in them, and begin to perceive other people's emotions as their own. But most empaths can empathize with another person without transferring their feelings to themselves.

Empathy is a very valuable quality for representatives of such professions as a doctor, teacher, psychologist, psychotherapist, personnel manager, head of an enterprise, investigator, etc. Almost all professions focused on communicating with people require some degree of empathy, skill understand and feel the inner state of another person.

Types and levels of empathy

Edward Titchner identified several types of empathy - emotional, cognitive and predicative. Let's consider them in more detail.

• Emotional. This type of empathy is based on a person's tendency to imitate the emotions of the one who is next to him, to sympathize with him, projecting his experiences onto himself. Most of human communication is built on this kind of empathy.
• Cognitive. In this case, the empath can not only feel the experiences of another person, but also perceive them from the position of the mind - analyze, find patterns, compare. This makes it possible to understand the interlocutor more deeply.
• Predicative. This type of empathy allows you to predict a person's reaction to a particular situation. An empath can mentally put himself in the place of his interlocutor and understand what feelings and experiences any situation will cause him.

In addition to types, there are also levels of empathy, each of which characterizes how special person capable of empathy.

• Low level. People with low empathy are unable to perceive the experiences of others. They only focus on own feelings and emotions, so it is difficult for them to understand what the other person is feeling. Such people are called emotionally callous. Usually they try to isolate themselves from others, their social circle is very narrow.
• Average level. Most people have an average level of empathy. At this level, a person is able to understand the experiences of others, but at the same time remains indifferent to their problems. Only close people cause him sincere sympathy and desire to help.
• High level. A high level of empathy allows a person to understand and feel the emotions of other people well, but at the same time he knows how not to project them onto himself. Such people, as a rule, are sociable and easily make contact. With a high level of empathy, they expect the same manifestation from the people around them.
• Raised level. People with a high level of empathy are quite rare. Their feature is the ability to experience other people's emotions as their own. Because of this, a person has a lot of problems in life. He is very vulnerable, and often feels guilty. However, if a person manages to cope with an increased level of empathy, he can make an excellent specialist in the field of medicine or psychology.

Pros and cons of empathy

Like any phenomenon, empathy can be beneficial, and it can also harm a person. So, what are the pros and cons of the ability to empathize?

• due to the ability to understand others, a person can become a good specialist in any field of activity related to people;
• ability to think outside the box and find original solutions;
• the ability to provide support and assistance to others;
• the ability to recognize lies and insincerity;
• the ability to effectively resolve conflicts or avoid them.

• inability to show healthy aggression if necessary;
• emotional burnout;
• constant worrying about other people's problems;
• tendency to mental disorders;
• other people may begin to take advantage of the person's kindness;
• increased anxiety and vulnerability.

How to develop empathy?

Empathy is an innate feeling and is inherent in the vast majority of people to one degree or another. With age, the ability to empathize can either increase or, conversely, weaken. It is easy to develop in young children if you teach a child to sympathize with other people and animals, to understand other people's pain and suffering.

Trusting and warm relationships between family members help to increase the level of empathy in a child. If adults teach a child to love nature, take care of animals and plants, explain that every living being is in pain and may need help, the child will be able to develop the ability to empathize.

There are exercises to help develop empathy. They are suitable for both children and adults who want to increase their level of empathy. They are performed in a group consisting of several people. You can train together.

To complete the exercise, you will need cards on which you need to write the names of different emotions - joy, anger, sadness, bewilderment, surprise, etc. Then the cards are distributed to the participants. Each of them must use gestures and facial expressions to depict the emotion that is indicated in his card. The rest of the participants must guess what kind of emotion the person is trying to show.

Participants are divided into pairs. One of them takes on the role of a monkey, and the other takes on the role of a mirror. The "monkey" should make faces, grimace and depict any emotions and feelings. The task of the "Mirror" is to repeat them as accurately as possible.

One of the participants must pick up the phone (or imagine that he has a phone in his hands) and start a conversation with an imaginary interlocutor. Before starting a conversation, he thinks about who he will “talk” with, but does not tell others about it. The task of the other participants is to guess who the interlocutor is (wife, friend, boss, client, mother, child, etc.).

Empathy is very useful quality and it can and should be developed. However, it should be understood that too deep immersion in the problems and experiences of other people can lead to sad consequences. Therefore, every empath must learn to empathize with another person without projecting their emotions and feelings onto themselves. The ability to distinguish between your own and other people's problems is the key to the emotional stability of an empath.

Empathy

The inner universe of each person is unique. We come into this world with our own type of temperament and go through unique life experiences that affect our habits, worldview and the way we perceive the world around us. Looking at the snowfall, one person will admiringly remark: “White snows are falling!”. Another nervously throws: "Muck in the face climbs." And despite this, we sometimes still manage to comprehend the inner world and emotional state of another person. This phenomenon is called compassion or empathy.

The origin of empathy

Empathy is the word Greek origin, it means conscious empathy with the emotional state of another person.

When analyzing what the word “empathy” means, many confuse it with compassion, although in fact this term means the ability to empathize with any emotions, not only negative, but also positive. To date, there have been several interpretations of the term "empathy".

In medicine, he is given the role of understanding and demonstrating understanding of the emotional state of another person. Empathic listening comes to the fore here, with the goal of letting the patient speak out, encouraging him to frankly express his feelings and sensations.

In psychology, emotional empathy is considered the norm; there are even special methods for identifying people's ability to this form. mental activity, which vary from a light response to complete immersion in the feelings of the interlocutor. But it should not be confused with identification, during which a person not only understands the feelings of another, as happens with empathy, but also in some way does not distinguish them from his own.

In fiction, the term "empath" has taken on a new meaning that is more reminiscent of emotional telepathy and is considered a psychic ability. However, in reality, such experiments with empathy could not be repeated.

Types of empathy

In classical psychology, empathy is divided into emotional, cognitive and predicative.

Emotional empathy is a form of mental activity based on the mechanisms of projection and imitation of the interlocutor's reactions (motor, affective). And speaking of empathy in everyday life, we mean precisely emotional empathy, in other words, the ability to project the experiences of another person onto oneself and reproduce these emotions on oneself.

Cognitive empathy is based on such intellectual processes as analogy and comparison. It takes place in scientific discussions and polemics.

Predicative empathy is the ability to predict the feelings of another person in certain situations. And although this term is unlikely to be used by anyone in everyday life, in fact, the ability to put oneself in the place of another and predict what feelings he will experience at the same time can most people.

Psychologists also distinguish into special categories such forms of empathy as empathy and sympathy. Empathy is the experience of the emotions of the interlocutor through identification with him. Sympathy, on the contrary, is the experience of one's own emotions experienced about the feelings of the interlocutor.

Development of empathy

Emotional empathy in different people has its own special degrees of expression. The lowest level is characterized by self-centeredness and indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others. Representatives of this species did not seem to experience emotional empathy in principle. They rarely understand others, feel discomfort in unfamiliar companies, and therefore try to live in solitude. As a rule, people with low levels of emotional empathy have few friends, and those who do have more colleagues.

The second level of empathy is the most common. Its representatives are indifferent to the thoughts and feelings of others, but in rare cases they can show empathy. They are able to express emotions, but prefer to keep them under control. A manifestation characteristic of this level of development of empathy is that a person loves films and art books, but prefers action rather than description of experiences.

The third level of empathy is high and at the same time rare. Its representatives understand and feel the emotions of others better than their own. These are devoted and generous friends, people who are not indifferent to the problems of others. They are contact, responsive, sociable, sincere, trust feelings and intuition. The flip side of the coin is that those with this level of emotional empathy wait for social approval for their actions and easily get out of balance.

In addition to the levels of empathy, there is also a classification of people on this basis. They are categorized as non-empaths, weak empaths, functional empaths, and professional empaths. The first category is those who do not know the feeling of empathy. The second category is well aware of empathy, only experiencing constant stress from experiencing the gravity of the world. The third category easily adapts to emotions and does not let them through. Professional empaths easily recognize emotions, even those that the interlocutor prefers to hide, but most importantly, they have the ability to manage other people's mental experiences. And this is quite a useful skill for psychologists and educators. If you want to learn to understand other people, the consistent development of empathy will help you gain this ability.

Empathy Diagnostics

In order to determine whether you are able to understand the emotional state of the people around you, there are well-established techniques. For example, empathy can be diagnosed using the emotional response scale developed by psychology professor Albert Megrabyan. This scientist proposed a simple and effective questionnaire that reveals the level of ability for emotional empathy for the feelings of the interlocutor and the degree of its correspondence to the reality of the subject.

The Empathy Diagnostic Test consists of 25 questions that rank one of five levels of empathy from very high to very low. And although it may seem to you that the highest level of empathy is also the best, in fact, hypertrophied sensitivity leads to emotional dependence, vulnerability and even psychosomatic illnesses. Of course, it is worth developing the ability to listen to another, paraphrase and reflect his emotions. But at the same time, it is necessary to choose effective behavioral strategies that will allow you to strike a balance between a rational sober mind and sensitive responsive emotionality.

Empathy or the ability to listen with the heart

Even as adults, we always hope that fate will give us a person who will understand us perfectly. Such a person who will share with us our joys and sorrows as his own. it wonderful feeling, which allows you to emotionally feel into your interlocutor, is called Empathy.

Other people's emotions - as their own

The ability to consciously empathize with other people's emotions, unfortunately, is very rare today. The term "Empathy" in psychology was one of the first to be mentioned in the works of Sigmund Freud, who argued that in order to work effectively with a patient, a psychoanalyst must take into account his emotional state. The psychoanalyst enters this state, after which he gains the ability to understand it by comparing it with his own feelings.

Today, the concept of "Empathy" means a lot. First of all, empathy is a conscious empathy for a person, his emotional state, without losing a sense of external control over such a state. In medicine and psychology, empathy is often equated with empathic listening - demonstrating that the specialist correctly understands the emotional state of the patient. In forensic science, having the skill of empathic listening means the ability to gather information about the feelings and thoughts of the subject.

For psychics, empathy is considered a special feeling, available only to some people. The value of this ability in extrasensory perception is great: it serves as a tool for perceiving the emotional states of other people "directly", as well as broadcasting one's emotions, while the lack of direct contact with a person is not a hindrance. Such a feeling is equated with the concept of emotional telepathy.

The manifestations of empathy are very different: from complete immersion in the feelings of a communication partner (emotional or affective empathy), to an objective understanding of the experiences of a communication partner without strong emotional involvement. In this case, the following types of empathy are distinguished:

• sympathy - emotional responsiveness, the need to provide assistance;
• empathy - a person experiences the same emotions as a communication partner;
• sympathy - a very friendly and warm attitude towards a person.

Empathy is not associated with the perception of any specific emotions (as with compassion). This feeling is used to indicate empathy for any state. There are many professions in which empathic listening is not only desirable, but even necessary. These professions include almost all professions focused on communication with people:

• psychologists, psychotherapists;
• doctors;
• teachers;
• personnel managers;
• leaders;
• detectives;
• officials;
• sellers;
• hairdressers and others.

As you can see, the application of this amazing property of our psyche can be found anywhere. People with the ability to empathize are called empaths.

Can you become an empath?

You can often hear: "He is a born psychologist." Often such a phrase indicates a person's ability to emotionally empathize without special professional skills. Can you become an empath? Is empathy an innate or acquired ability? What are its signs?

According to biology, brain activity, which reflects the actions and state of other individuals, directly depends on the activity of mirror neurons. Biologists suggest that the strength of empathy depends on their activity.

An indirect confirmation of this is that people suffering from alexithymia do not have the ability to empathize, since their neurophysiological problems do not allow them to distinguish even their own emotions.

Modern experts believe that empathy is an innate and genetic property, but life experience strengthens or weakens it. The strength of empathy depends on the presence of rich life experience, accuracy of perception, and developed skills in empathic communication. Initially, women have a more developed capacity for empathy, especially those who have children.

Provided that at least the rudiments of empathy are innate, its development can be accelerated by various training methods and special exercises that develop skills. effective application this ability in professional and personal communication. If you want to learn to understand the emotions and feelings of others, it is useful to practice such artistic studies, such as "Memorizing Faces", "How Others See Me", "Reincarnation". They also develop the ability to empathize and sympathize with any fortune-telling, the Association game. The development of empathy is promoted by the general development of emotionality through dance, watching movies, listening to music, and other methods of art therapy.

To identify the level of empathy in people, as well as certain aspects of this ability, there are various methods and techniques. The most reliable diagnostic aimed at determining the level of empathy is called "Empathy Quotient", for Russian-speaking users there is an adaptation of it called "Empathy Level".

Pros and cons

Empathy is a real gift that not everyone knows how to use for its intended purpose. Often this property of the psyche brings suffering to a person, because people do not always experience only joy, happiness, love and other positive states. What for one person seems like the ultimate dream, for another is a heavy burden.

The ability to empathize and sympathize presupposes that a person has a developed personality, since an immature mind is unable to cope with a flurry of other people's emotions. Having decided to develop empathy, it is not at all superfluous to evaluate the pros and cons of such a decision.

What is the difference between empathy and sympathy?

Everyone is able to feel the emotional state of another person to one degree or another. At the same time, normally, a person realizes that this is not his experience, that he only in some way reflects the feelings of his interlocutor.

This is empathy at its core. general meaning this concept.

This term appeared in late XIX century, and the first definition of empathy was given by Sigmund Freud. From the Greek "ev", "em" is translated "in", and "pathos" - passion, suffering.

It would seem that the word “compassion”, as well as similar words “empathy”, “sympathy” can become a natural synonym for the Greek term in Russian.

However, this statement is not entirely true.

For example, any child feels and understands when his mother is very upset because of some bad deed that he has committed. Here he came from the playground in a very dirty jacket, and his mother reproaches him with chagrin. In such a situation, children may behave differently. One will sincerely say: “Mom, don’t be upset, let me clean my jacket myself.” Another will share the feeling of the mother, apologize, say that he did not think about how upset she would be, but will not offer help. The third will indifferently undress and go to the toys.

What's the matter? After all, the feelings of the mother are obvious to the third child.

Empathy is just a natural ability. It is associated with certain functions of the brain. It is thanks to this ability that a person strives for communication and is capable of it.

Just like other abilities, it needs to be developed. The result of the development of the ability to empathy can be such high moral qualities of a person as empathy, compassion, sympathy.

With empathy, we somehow identify ourselves with another person, while experiencing the same emotional state as him. Compassion is a synonym for empathy, with the connotation that we are talking about experiencing an unpleasant, negative quality, grief, suffering.

About feelings loved one their own emotional states may also arise. This self-experience is called empathy. This concept has no explicit emotional coloring, however, most often it is also used in connection with any sad states.

A common feature of these concepts is their focus on the joint overcoming of troubles, grief, help in alleviating suffering. This help can be expressed both in verbal support and action.

This means that the indifferent attitude of the child to the feelings of the mother, as a rule, does not indicate his depravity, but that his parents do not sufficiently develop his ability to empathize (the reasons may be different).

Such a child has a great chance to grow up as a kind of "thick-skinned animal" that goes around the world, inadvertently hurting the feelings of other people and not noticing it. At worst, this is a cruel egoist. It is known that psychologists consider the lack of the ability to empathize as one of the signs of mental illness.