7/29/2019 The Challenge of Empathy

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Living withUncertaintyis a research projectfunded under theESRC GlobalUncertaintiesprogramme and led byProfessor LynneCameron at the OpenUniversity.

We must have many ways of

stopping empathy.

Dyspathyis the name given to anythingthat stops empathy.

The project found 3 key ways ofstopping empathy:

distancing the other person, blocking them lumping them as a group.

Removing dyspathy supportsempathy.

L I V I N G W I T H U N C E R T A I N T Y

FINDINGS FROM THE ESRC RESEARCH PROJECT 2013

ENCOURAGING EMPATHY BY DISMANTLING DYSPATHY

THE CHALLENGE OF EMPATHY

To fnd out more: http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/livingwithuncertainty/

Empathy is about one person connecting with another, reaching across the gap between

them, to understand how the other feels and thinks, lives their life, and sees their world.

Distancing other peopleEmpathy is stopped when we nd reasonsnot to get too close to other people, whenwe make some people less important,when were too busy to be bothered, whenwe nd them impossible to understand.

We keep our distance by staying where wefeel safe, staying close to home, with thepeople we know, in the past.

We need distance because we are afraidof something.

The challenge: reducing distanceWhat is that I am afraid of here?How does that fear restrict my life?What can I do to change it?

Extend the comfort zone.Venture beyond the comfortable.Reach out to connect.

Find safe spaces to meet.Acknowledge emotions - our own andtheirs.

Blocking and lumpingother peopleEmpathy is stopped by the barriers we putin place between us and other people.Empathy is stopped when we dont seeother people as individuals but as a group,lumped together.

We are social beings and need thepleasures, comfort, and security of beingin a group. The problem comes when wedene ourselves by who we exclude fromour group, and see them as all the same,different from us.

When other people are lumped into agroup, damaging stories can be told.Individuals disappear inside the groupand violence becomes more likely.

The challenge:reducing blocking and lumpingWhen I encounter this person, do I see them as anindividual or just as part of a group?What does my group believe about their group?What stories do we tell about them?How much truth is there in those beliefs andstories?How do those beliefs and stories make me feel?Is that how I want to feel?What can I do to change it?

Find scraps of truth and real life.Find the gaps in what we know and becurious.Understand about the other as a person,as a woman or man, as a parent, as a sonor daughter.

Listen to other stories they have to tell.

Acknowledge troubles and struggles - ourown and theirs.

The empathy ouch!

If you see someone hit theirthumb with the hammer asthey put a nail in a wall, yourresponse will be: OUCH!Thats empathy.

Automatic empathy is when yourbody reacts to someone elsespain as if you had hurt yourself.It works with other emotions too- joy, fear...

Controlled empathy

We can contain and change our

initial automatic responses to

other people.

Controlled empathy takes the

time to think about how it feelsto be the other person in their

world.

Empathic understandingcomes from automatic andcontrolled empathy:

The other person is seen as acomplex individual,

and thats ok - differences canbe accepted.

And both can deal with the

difcult feelings that mightbring up.

And it lasts, it is resilient.

The empathy paradoxIf its automatic to feel anothershumanity, why is there so muchviolence, conict, and lack ofcaring in our lives?

Empathy grows through contact, especially face-to-face contact, between individuals. Dyspathy thrives in groups.