Updated January 1, 2009

Definitions of Empathy

• Edith Stein: “Empathy… is the experience of foreign consciousness in general” (1989/1917, p. 11). Source: Stein, E. (1989). On the problem of empathy. Washington: ICS Publications. (Original work published 1917)

• Mark H. Davis: "Empathy in broadest sense refers to the reactions of one individual to the observed experiences of another" (Davis, 1983, p. 113). Source: Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113-126.

• Jean Decety: "The ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others" (Decety & Lamm, 2006, p. 1146). Source: Decety, J., & Lamm, C. (2006). Human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience. The Scientific World Journal, 6, 1146-1163.

• Heinz Kohut: “Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.” (1984, p. 82). Source: Kohut, H. (1984). How does analysis cure? Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

• C. D. Batson: “Other-oriented feelings congruent with the perceived welfare of another person.”
  Source: Batson, C. D. (1994). Why act for the public good? Four answers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 603-610, p. 606.

• Nancy Eisenberg: “An affective response that stems from the apprehension or comprehension of another’s emotional state or condition, and that is similar to what the other person is feeling or would be expected to feel” (2002, p. 135). Source: Eisenberg, N. (2002). Empathy-related emotional responses, altruism, and their socialization In R. J. Davidson & A. Harrington (Eds.). Visions of compassion: Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature (p. 131-164). London: Oxford University Press.

• Martin Hoffman: “An affective response more appropriate to another’s situation than one’s own” (1987, p. 48). Source: Hoffman, M. L. (1987). The contribution of empathy to justice and moral judgment. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development (p. 47-80). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Roy Schafer:  “Empathy involves the inner experience of sharing in and comprehending the mometary psychological state of another person” (1959, p. 345). Source: Schafer, R. (1959). Generative empathy in the treatment situation. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 28, 342-373.

• D. M. Berger: “The capacity to know emotionally what another is experiencing from within the frame of reference of that other person, the capacity to sample the feelings of another or to put oneself in another’s shoes”. Source: Berger, D. M. (1987). Clinical empathy. Northvale: Jason Aronson, Inc.

• M. O´Hara:  “It is a way of perceiving and knowing and a way of being connected to other consciousnesses by which individual human beings gain access to the inner worlds of other individuals and to the workings of relationships, and whole ecologies, of which they are but parts.” (1997, p. 303-304). Source: O’Hara, M. (1997). Relational empathy: Beyond modernist egocentrism to postmodern holistic contextualism. In A. C. Bohart & L. S. Greenberg (Eds.), Empathy reconsidered: New directions in psychotherapy (p. 295-319). Baltimore: United Book Press.

• R. R. Greenson: “To empathize means to share, to experience the feelings of another person.” (1960, p. 418). Source: Greenson, R. R. (1960). Empathy and its vicissitudes. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 41, 418-424

• Carl Rogers: “To perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing the “as if” condition. Thus, it means to sense the hurt or the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive the causes thereof as he perceives them, but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if I were hurt or pleased and so forth." (1959, p. 210-211)”
  Source: Rogers, C. R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of science, (Vol. 3, p. 184-256). New York: Mc Graw Hill.
  
  Later (1975), Rogers wrote that empathy is a process rather than a state and that it means "entering the private perceptual world of the other and becoming thoroughly at home in it. It involves being sensitive, moment to moment, to the changing felt meanings which flow in this other person, to the fear or rage or tenderness or confusion or what ever, that he/she is experiencing. It means temporarily living in his/her life, moving about in it delicately without making judgments, sensing meanings of which he/she is scarcely aware, but not trying to uncover feelings of which the person is totally unaware, since this would be too threatening. It includes communicating your sensing of his/her world as you look with fresh and unfrightened eyes at elements of which the individual is fearful. It means frequently checking with him/her as to the accuracy of your sensings, and being guided by the responses you receive. You are a confident companion to the person in his/her inner world. By pointing to the possible meanings in the flow of his/her experiencing you help the person to focus on this useful type of referent, to experience the meanings more fully, and to move forward in the experiencing. To be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another’s world without prejudice. In some sense it means that you lay aside yourself and this can only be done by a person who is secure enough in himself that he knows he will not get lost in what may turn out to be the strange or bizarre world of the other, and can comfortably return to his own world when he wishes. Perhaps this description makes clear that being empathic is a complex, demanding, strong yet subtle way of being.” (p. 4). Source: Rogers, C. (1975). Empathic: An unappreciated way of beeing. Counseling Psychologist, 5, 2-10.

• William Ickes: "The ability to infer the specific content of another person's thoughts and feelings" (1997, s. 3). Source: Ickes, W. (1997). Empathic accuracy. New York: Guilford Press.

 

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