Definitions History

Create a history of the the concept of empathy. Each author has a separate page.

How has the word and concept of empathy developed over time?

History Links


2012 LANZONI

Empathy in Translation: Movement and Image in the Psychological Laboratory
Susan Lanzoni

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889712000154

24 July 2012

Argument

"The new English term “empathy” was translated from the German Einfühlung in the first decade of the twentieth century by the psychologists James Ward at the University of Cambridge and Edward B. Titchener at Cornell. At Titchener's American laboratory, “empathy” was not a matter of understanding other minds, but rather a projection of imagined bodily movements and accompanying feelings into an object, a meaning that drew from its rich nineteenth-century aesthetic heritage. "


Introduction: Emotion and the Sciences: Varieties of Empathy in Science, Art, and History
Susan Lanzoni
24 July 2012

"Emotion and feeling have only in the last decade become analytic concepts in the humanities, reflected in what some have called an “affective turn” in the academy at large. The study of emotion has also found a place in science studies and the history and philosophy of science, accompanied by the recognition that even the history of objectivity depends in a dialectical fashion on a history of subjectivity (Daston and Galison 2010, esp. chap. 4). This topical issue is a contribution to this larger trend across the humanities and the history of science, and yet is circumscribed by attention to a particular kind of emotion or condition for feeling: one centered not in an individual body, but in the interstices between bodies and things, between selves and others – what we call empathy."


Empathy’s Evolution in the Human Imagination
What Began as an Aesthetic Response to Art Is Now a Highly Complex Neurochemical Reaction
BY SUSAN LANZONI
JULY 17, 2017

"Aesthetic empathy was first described in the 1870s, when father and son art historians Friedrich and Robert Vischer expounded on Einfühlung to explain how we imaginatively bend, stretch, or shrink ourselves to inhabit forms we perceive. To “feel into” a Doric column was to feel it reaching upwards; to feel into a winding road was to sense it hesitating; and to feel into a heavy weight sitting on a pillar was to experience it straining earthwards."


A Short History of Empathy
The term’s only been around for about a century—but over the course of its existence, its meaning has continually changed.
SUSAN LANZON

theatlantic.com

"The English word “empathy” came into being only about a century ago as a translation for the German psychological term Einfühlung, literally meaning “feeling-in.” English-speaking psychologists suggested a handful of other translations for the word, including “animation,” “play,” “aesthetic sympathy,” and “semblance.” But in 1908 two psychologists from Cornell and the University of Cambridge suggested “empathy” for Einfühlung, drawing on the Greek “em” for “in” and “pathos” for “feeling,” and it stuck."

1. The Concept of Empathy

"Since its inception, the sense of the term "empathy" has wandered. As a result, defining empathy is difficult and somewhat arbitrary. Still, a core formation can be reached by looking closely at etymology, and by focusing on conceptual differences between empathy and closely related terms, primarily sympathy."

Empathy, Psychology, and Aesthetics: Reflectionson a Repair Concept
David Depew (Depew 2005)

The Complicated History of Einfühlung
Magdalena NOWAK

"The article analyses the history of the Einfühlung concept. Theories of ‘feeling into’ Nature, works of art or feelings and behaviours of other persons by German philosophers of the second half of the nineteenth century Robert and Friedrich Vischer and Theodor Lipps are evoked, as well as a similar theory of understanding (Verstehen) by Wilhelm Dilthey and Friedrich Schleiermacher, to which Dilthey refers. The meaning of the term Einfühlung within Edith Stein’s thought is also analysed."


1909: The Introduction of the Word ‘Empathy’ into English
Rae Greiner

"The word “empathy” first appeared in English in 1909 when it was translated by Edward Bradford Titchener from the German Einfühlung, an old concept that had been gaining new meaning and increased relevance from the 1870s onward. While today we often treat “empathy” as a synonym for “sympathy,” if not—and more commonly—as an improvement on it, empathy at the turn of the century was used to describe a unique combination of cognitive effort and bodily feeling thought to characterize aesthetic experience...."


Empathy in Patient Care.
Mohammadreza Hojat

(book has overview of the history, pg 4)

"The concept of empathy (not the English term) was first discussed in 1873 by Robert Vischer, a German art historian and philosopher who used the word Einfuhlung to address an observers feelings elicited by works of art, the word was used to describe the projection of human feelings onto the natural world and inanimate objects."
(Hojat 2006)


Below Sort. Notes from (BUTTERS 2010)*

1922 Richmond (Richmond, 1922).
Richmond, Mary E. (1922). What is social case work? An introductory description. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Mary Richmond recognized the importance of sympathetic responding in casework with clients (BUTTERS 2010)*

1
958 Olden (Chirstine Olden 1958)
Olden, C. (1958). Notes on the development of empathy. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 13, 505-518.

maintaining a sense of the independence and uniqueness of the person with whom one is empathizingChirstine Olden discusses empathy as a complex and dichotomous construct. In Notes on the Development of Empathy (1958), she argues that empathy is the sensibility of one person towards another that allows for the maintenance of one’s unique separateness. She stresses the importance of being able to understand another’s thoughts and feelings and create emotional intimacy, while also maintaining a sense of the independence and uniqueness of the person with whom one is empathizing. (BUTTERS 2010)*


1963 Erickson
Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.

This relational view describes an alternate model for healthy development of the self. According to this theory, maturation of the self or ego occurs through the process of relationship-differentiation, rather than through the more traditional models of separation individuation Using this model, with relationship at its core, we see empathic responding and relating as a central process in development, socializations, and healthy functioning. (BUTTERS 2010)*


1967 Truax +
Truax, C.B. & Carkhuff, R.R. (1967). Toward effective counseling and psychotherapy:Training and Practice. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.

developed one of the first empathy training programs as well as the first widely used empathy measurement scale. conceptualized empathy as consisting of three main qualities: accurate empathy, nonpossessive warmth genuineness. (BUTTERS 2010)*

Carkhuff and Truax developed one of the first empathy training programs as well as the first widely used empathy measurement scale (Truax and Carkhuff, 1967). They conceptualized empathy as consisting of three main qualities: accurate empathy, onpossessive warmth, and genuineness. They theorize that a combination of these qualities in a helping professional contribute to positive outcomes for patients because the patient is able to engage in self-exploration. The Carkhuff and Truax training scales are used extensively in professional schools of social work, psychology, and in the health professions in addition to client populations, to evaluate empathy. (BUTTERS 2010)*


1975 Mahler
Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books.

This relational view describes an alternate model for healthy development of the self. According to this theory, maturation of the self or ego occurs through the process of relationship-differentiation, rather than through the more traditional models of separation individuation Using this model, with relationship at its core, we see empathic responding and relating as a central process in development, socializations, and healthy functioning. (BUTTERS 2010)*


1981 Kohlberg
Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development. San Francisco: Harper & Row.


1982 Di Chiara
Di Chiara, G. (1982). L’assetto mentale dello psicoanalista quale invariante tra terapia e conoscenza. Paper presented at the Fifth National Conference of the Societa Psicoanalista Italiana, Rome, Italy.

who describes the importance of working to develop intimacy and closeness while remaining separate. This idea of joining while remaining objective and separate is also endorsed by Giuseppe Di Chiara (1982), who describes the importance of working to develop intimacy and closeness while remaining separate. (BUTTERS 2010)*


2007 Freedberg
Freedberg, S. (2007).

Re-examining Empathy: A relational-feminist point of view. Social Work, 52(3), 251-259.

Feminist-relational theory provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes growth, development, and the fostering of relational activities “the capacity to feel and think something similar to the feelings and thoughts of another person that exists in all people” (p. 254).

Feminist-relational theory provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes growth, development, and the fostering of relational activities (Freedberg, 2007). This theory describes empathy more broadly as “the capacity to feel and think something similar to the feelings and thoughts of another person that exists in all people” (p. 254). (BUTTERS 2010)*


Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.


Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975).

The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books.This relational view describes an alternate model for healthy development of the self. According to this theory, maturation of the self or ego occurs through the process of relationship-differentiation, rather than through the more traditional models of separationindividuation (Erickson, 1963; Mahler, 1975). Using this model, with relationship at its core, we see empathic responding and relating as a central process in development, socializations, and healthy functioning. (BUTTERS 2010)*