SearchingforPeace
Well-known member
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- Jun 9, 2015
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I have been reading Focus by Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence) and encountered his discussion of empathy.
He outlines three types that researchers have found: Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Empathy, and Empathic Concern. I thought to bring this to discuss here rather than in blog.
Now I have read numerous old Fe vs. Fi threads which cover the topic. Some were very heated. I have got into discussions with others here as well in various places about the topic.
Fi users tend to set forth an idea that Fe users don't have empathy, but only sympathy, which Fe users reject and it goes off from there.
Anyway, back to Goleman
Now, I will put his definitions of all three types of empathy into separate posts.
He outlines three types that researchers have found: Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Empathy, and Empathic Concern. I thought to bring this to discuss here rather than in blog.
Now I have read numerous old Fe vs. Fi threads which cover the topic. Some were very heated. I have got into discussions with others here as well in various places about the topic.
Fi users tend to set forth an idea that Fe users don't have empathy, but only sympathy, which Fe users reject and it goes off from there.
Anyway, back to Goleman
Focus said:Supersensitive reading of emotional signals represents the zenith of cognitive empathy, one of three varieties of the ability to focus on what other people experience. This variety of empathy lets us take other's perspective, comprehend their mental state, and at the same time manage our own emotions while we take stock of theirs. These can be top-down operations.
In contrast, with emotional empathy we join the other person in feeling along with him or her; our bodies resonante in whatever key of joy or sorrow thwt person may be going through. Such attunement tends to occur through automatic, spontaneous---and bottom-up---brain circuits.
While cognitive or emotional empathy means we recognize what another person thinks and resonante with their feelings, it does not necessarily led to sympathy, concern for others' welfare. The third variety, empathic concern, goes further: leading us to care about them, moblizing us to help if need be. This compassionate attitude builds up bottom-up primal systems for caring and attachment deep down in the brain, those these mix with more reflective, top-down circuits that evaluate how much we value their well-being.
Our circuity for empathy was designed for face-to-face moments. Today, working together online poses special challenges for empathy. Take, for example, that familiar moment in a meeting when everyone has reached a tacit consensus, and one person then articulates aloud what everyone already knows but has not said: "Okay, then, we all agree on this." Heads nod.
But coming to such consensus in an onkine text-based discussion requires flying blinr, without relying on the continuous cascade of nonverbal messages that in a real meeting let someone announce aloud the as-yet-unspoken agreement. We can base our reading of others only on what they have to say. Beyond that, there's reading berween the lines: online werely on cognitive empathy, the variety of mind-reading that let's us infer what's going on in someone else's mind.
Now, I will put his definitions of all three types of empathy into separate posts.