Glossary: Definition of Terms
Affective Empathy
In the Empathy Circle:
Active Listening
In the Empathy Circle:
Cognitive Empathy
In the Empathy Circle:
Empathic Accuracy
When we empathize with others, we are usually not totally accurate in the feelings we are sensing. The accuracy can be deepened.
In the Empathy Circle: Empathy Circle helps with getting more accurate because we recap and reflect what we hear the speaker can say if the active listener was accurate in their understanding or not.
Empathic Listening
In the Empathy Circle:
Empathic Wellbeing
Empathy is way of being. An aspect of that way of being is the intention for the wellbeing of the whole. That is everyone in the community and word for that mater. This is done by being willing to listen to everyone and to support everyone in listening and empathizing with each other. This happens through the dialogue and the negotiation that takes place. People can express their desires and needs. When this happens it almost naturally leads to finding ways to address them.
In the Empathy Circle: The Empathy Circle models the constructive dialogue . Given enough time, people express their needs and desires. And the feelings they would like to have. They negotiate how to get them met.
Parochial Empathy
refers to the tendency to feel empathy more strongly for members of one's own group (such as family, community, nation, or ideological group) while being indifferent or even hostile toward outsiders. This bias can lead to strong in-group bonding but also contribute to conflict, discrimination, or lack of concern for those perceived as "other."
In the Empathy Circle:
Radical Empathy
Description: Gemini AI: While standard empathy involves understanding and sharing the feelings of another person (putting yourself in their shoes), Radical Empathy goes significantly deeper and demands more active engagement. It's often described as:
A Deeper Understanding Across Differences: It involves striving to understand the perspective, feelings, and experiences of others, especially when those perspectives and experiences are vastly different from your own, perhaps due to different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, or life circumstances.
Contextual Awareness: It requires acknowledging and understanding the broader context, including historical factors, systemic issues (like racism, sexism, inequality), power dynamics, and cultural influences that shape a person's reality and experiences. It's not just about individual feelings but the forces surrounding them.
Vulnerability and Self-Reflection: Practicing radical empathy often requires you to be vulnerable, examine your own biases, privileges, and assumptions, and acknowledge how your own position might differ from or even impact the person you're trying to understand.
Action-Oriented: Unlike passive sympathy or even standard empathy, radical empathy often implies a commitment to action. This could involve listening deeply, validating others' experiences (even if you don't fully grasp them), advocating for change, or altering your own behavior based on your deepened understanding.
A Tool for Bridging Divides: It's frequently discussed in contexts like social justice, leadership, conflict resolution, and design thinking as a crucial tool for building bridges, fostering genuine connection, and creating positive change in complex situations. 1
In essence, Radical Empathy pushes beyond simply feeling for or with someone. It's a more demanding practice that involves actively working to understand the full context of another's experience, acknowledging systemic factors, examining oneself, and often, taking meaningful action as a result.
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References
The dangerous consequences of radical empathy - By Kevin Waldman
Says "radical empathy has been weaponized to fuel ideological extremism on American college campuses"
Empathy has become a liability and become exploited
"In its most radical form, empathy demands unconditional allegiance to perceived victims, often at the expense of truth, reason and moral clarity." Response: Empathy doesn't see or turn people into victims.
Create emotional identification
Advocates for reason
Response:
This is not wholistic empathy and not take part in an empathy circle.
This is sympathy
The response would be to bring the parties together in mutual empathic dialogue.
Empathy doesn't see or turn people into victims. no oppressor and oppressed.
Reflective Listening
In the Empathy Circle:
Understanding
Understanding other people’s emotions and perspectives. Empathy is often defined as understanding other people’s emotions and perspectives. i.e. "Professor Robin Banerjee, empathy is “the ability to feel and understand other people’s emotions and perspectives."" The understanding is more of a result of the sensing into. Empathy is the process of sensing into. When we sense into we start organizing what we sense and see the relationships between qualities. For example we may sense into someone's sadness and we see how it relates to the loss of a family member. We create a map of their experiences and the relationship of their experiences.
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