‘Empathy’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 4

Our relationships are very important to us. They have a big effect on our happiness. But what makes for a good relationship? I give you my ideas (based on those of Carl Rogers) and ask for yours.

Is psychotherapy about “cases” to be explained, or about individual persons who need and benefit from understanding? In this review of an article by psychotherapist Janet L. Etzi, we look at therapy and counselling as a complex interaction based on understanding the client as a human phenomenon, an interaction that is informed by both the client’s and the therapist’s emotions and thought processes.

Our relationships are important to us. We want to get better at relating. We want to develop more skills in relating. But what if this approach gets in the way of relating?

Provocative Therapy turns all accepted wisdom about therapy on its head. Here is a therapy in which the therapist makes fun of the client’s problems, blows them up out of all proportion and suggests crazy and surreal solutions seemingly off the top of their heads. So why does it seem to be effective?

Compassion meditation produces physical effects in the brain, “proving” in terms of Western science that an Eastern spiritual practice “works”. Are compassion and empathy skills which can be developed through meditation, or is this missing the point of a spiritual experience?