Mirrored Path To Empathy

It has been observed that mirror neurons are active when a person feels an emotion or witnesses another person expressing emotion, which could explain the feeling of empathy.

On October 9th 2013, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by the ‘Max Planck Institute for Human and Cognitive Brain Sciences’ revealed neurobiological roots of how our own sentiments can distort empathic capacity.4 An incredible part of the brain, the right supramarginal gyrus, has been attributed with the ability to recognise a lack of empathy and autocorrect. Studies have revealed our brain’s neural circuitry is malleable and potentially rewired through neuroplasticity. Hence our personal tendency for empathy and compassion can be labeled ‘innate’, but never fixed. In recent years, these same researchers have found compassion may be trained through short, daily exposure: meditation, volunteerism, mindfulness training and physical activity that puts the human body through challenging experiences, are among these findings.

Bohart, A. C., Greenberg, L. S., Elliot, R., & Watson, J. C. (2011). Empathy. Psychotherapy , 48 (1), 43-49.

Empathy derives from the German word Einfühlung, meaning to feel the suffering and troubles of another from within (Clarke, 2014). The empathic concern that enlivens us to action and to alleviate the perils, poverty or punishments borne by another. Humans devoid of empathy are bereft of compassion and immune to the needs and welfare of another.

However, by observing one’s actions, it can aid in revealing a person’s identity. We must look at the heart of these actions and see the emotions behind them. Does empathy play a role in these actions, or is it lacking? Simply by contemplating a person’s actions one can see that there is one obvious truth. At the core of all actions and people, the amount of empathy one has differentiates between good and evil.

Empathy refers to the ability to recognize how others are feeling emotionally, whether it be happy, sorrowful, or any other mental state. From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch, the main character’s father, contextually describes empathy as “understand[ing] a person [when one] consider[s] things from [another’s] point of view” (30). Atticus’s implementation of this empathic principle foreshadows his own need to apply empathy in his dealings with the defendant of a court case, Tom Robinson. By doing so, Atticus creates a bond with Tom, constructing a stronger drive to advance through the trial, in addition to presenting a tangible significance to readers of understanding others. This essential quality of empathy is unique to humans, creating both ease and conflict in how humans as a whole execute a pursuit of justice.

While having empathy is an exceptional quality, it has limitations. In Limits of Empathy, by Adam Waytz, he points out that though empathy can be a powerful tool in understanding another person’s experiences, it also has limits. He begins his article with introducing empathy as the topic of interest today. Through the use of an empathy belly and the age suit, Waytz discusses how these exercises are used in Ford Motor Company to get the perspective of a pregnant woman or an elderly person who has to drive. Whether or not these exercises actually help the company is unclear he states, but empathy has proven to be a focus of improvement all around us. Waytz states that research conducted suggests that the commotion about empathy is too intense,

“We are all frogs or cows; we wander through life in a state of perpetual bafflement because empathy is so hard – harder than anger, harder than pity” (Fadiman, 1988, p. 300).

Professor Paul Bloom states he is against empathy. He believes it is wrongfully used in our society and should not be used in certain situations. He still thinks it is important sometimes, but should not be primarily used as a result of anger, depression or retaliation. He believes compassion is the solution to empathy. In the long run, Bloom states that empathy will fail or burnout in a person. Hannah the extremely empathic person will eventually burnout according to Bloom. The use of empathy everyday as a core moral code will eventually be overwhelming and burned out and used up. The person will change direction and use empathy less in their lifetime. This essay will explore Paul Bloms opinion of empathy in his article, “Against

The recent discovery of mirror neurons was accidently noticed by Italian neuroscientists who were working with monkeys to study certain areas of the brain that operated cognitive movements. Upon this discovery, it was determined that there is an abundance of previously unknown cells within the brain that work to consciously or unconsciously detect emotions of others through their actions and behaviours, which we in turn mirror by mimicking those exact emotions. It is believed that this

Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, particularly others’ suffering. Humanity’s gift of understanding complex emotions ushers in a new way of understanding ourselves and how we react to stimuli. This ultimately leads to questioning of everything, leading us to one strong notion: Does empathy guide or hinder moral action?

Are mirror-touch synesthetes able to take on someone else’s emotional sensations? These are the questions that this study will aim to answer and a couple different experiments will be done to determine the answers. This study will be all observational research, trying to limit as many extraneous factors as possible. The first will be face perception tests. Subjects will be shown pictures of faces expressing different emotions and researcher’s will observe if the subjects’ emotions are changing as well. The next study will be with live people demonstrating different emotions to see if synesthetes can take on the emotions they are observing. There is some research to suggest that empathy is tied to mirror-touch synesthesia, and these tests will furthermore help determine that to be true or

To define and explicate this concept, I start by exploring some of the literature on empathy. There is an extensive empirical literature on empathy in the fields of neuroscience (see Thompson, 2001) and social psychology (see Davis, 1994). However, I confine my discussion here to the equally extensive (though sometimes overlooked) literature from phenomenology. Here, I draw on a range of theoretical ideas but the philosophical ideas of Husserl (1928/1989) on intersubjectivity and of Merleau-Ponty (1964/1968) on ‘embodiment as intertwining’ are particularly influential. While the focus in this literature review is on empathy, concepts related to embodiment and reflexivity are integral.

Empathy or the capability to comprehend and share the feelings and emotions of another is seen as a positive characteristic for an individual to hold (Guadagni, Burles, Ferrara & Iaria, 2014). Empathy is said to present itself as two types; cognitive and emotional (Blanke, Rauers, Riediger, 2016). Cognitive empathy refers to a person 's ability to recognize another 's emotions while emotional empathy refers to an individual’s ability to resonate with those emotions (Blanke, Rauers, Riediger, 2016). Sleep

Empathy is often described as having consideration of someone else feelings. Webster defines empathy as, the feeling that you understand and share another 's experience and emotions. Empathy consists of having the ability to feel another person 's feelings and the ability to place oneself in another person shoes or situation. In counseling, the therapist is expected to show empathy for their clients whose experiences are different from the counselor. The role of the counselor is to support the client with any issues or concerns. The role empathy plays in counseling.