Symposion. Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences Symposion. Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences
Aleksandar Fatić
ABSTRACT: While empathy is regularly seen as an integral aspect of any meaningful humanistic counseling and psychotherapy, the actual meanings attached to the concept vary widely. Such variance leads to different modalities of application of empathy in the humanistic helping professions, including psychotherapy. This paper discusses how far empathy actually involves the feeling of another’s feelings and what conditions and limitations apply to its role in the counseling process. Two central ideas are developed. First, empathy is predicated upon suffering and commiseration: the assumption of pain and deprivation is internal to the very concept of empathy, and Schopenhauer’s philosophy of the will provides the strongest account of why this is so. Second, empathy as a way of relating to another’s suffering is constitutive of the only morally justified community, namely the healing organic community. It is our capacity to cross-identify with other members through shared suffering that creates lasting, resilient communities. The paper concludes that any organic community is by nature therapeutic, and that much of what psychotherapy does is recreate the mechanisms of empathy and human care that were the foundation of pre-institutional human society.
