History of Empathy
Create a History of Empathy Here.
"Empathy: A History tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of the first appearance of empathy in 1908 and tracks its shifting meanings over the following century. Despite the word’s ubiquity today, few realize that it began as a translation of Einfühlung (“in‑feeling”), a term in German psychological aesthetics that described how spectators projected their own feelings and movements into objects of art and nature."
Talk - Susan Lanzoni: A History of Empathy
"Susan Lanzoni, historian of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience at Harvard University’s School of Continuing Education, shares her research on the earliest conceptions of empathy–initially a term to describe how spectators projected their own feelings onto objects of art and nature–and how this has transformed into its present meaning of grasping the feelings and emotions of other people. Despite a century of scientific exploration, and even as neuroscientists continue to map the brain correlates of empathy, its many dimensions still elude strict scientific description. This talk uncovers empathy’s historical layers, offering a rich portrait of the tension between the reach of one’s own imagination and the realities of others’ experiences, and the importance of practicing empathy in our current moment. "
The History of Empathy by Susan Lanzoni - Interviewed by Edwin Rutsch