‘Empathy’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 6

Empathy is not the act of getting lost in the state of the other. Otherwise, when a client is drowning, we would be pulled in and drown ourselves, which would be of little help to anyone. Rogers produced a sensible working definition of empathy when he wrote about sensing the client’s private world as if it were your own. Is this essential to therapy?

Back in the February Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reported the first physiologic evidence of therapists and clients being measurably ‘on the same wavelength’ during live psychotherapy sessions. Clients and therapists had similar physiologic responses during moments of high positive emotion, and the more similar the responses were, the greater the level of therapist empathy experienced by clients.

As a video message from one of the London suicide bombers offers the first direct glimpse into terrorist motivations and psychology, public statements from politicians continue to suggest that they are unwilling or unable to engage in fact-based analysis of the terrorist threat.

Most or all of us have experienced the feelings of success that come with completing some difficult project or task we’ve set ourselves. What if that project were the planning and execution of a terrorist attack on London that left at least dozens dead and hundreds wounded? Is there a ‘psychology of terrorism’?

Informal research reveals a growing quantity of material that is ‘pro anorexia’ on Xanga, on other community portals and discussion forums, and across the web. A significant group of people would specifically like to learn how to be anorexic. This article explores the pro anorexia phenomenon from a therapeutic perspective, emphasizing fundamental respect for the individual and his or her choices. (Originally published October 2004.)