Author Archives
Dedicated and committed that empathy becomes less of a rumor and more of an expanded reality in the community...
-
Empathy Lessons #17 and #18
This is an excerpt from Empathy Lessons (2018): (17) Empathy is the ultimate anti-bullying anti-dote: Bullying is abroad in the land. Bullying is not just for high school anymore, but is getting called out (contained and transformed) in the work place,… Read More ›
-
Empathy Lessons #14 and #15
When people do not get the empathy to which they feel entitled, they get enraged. De-escalate rage by providing empathy and empathic relatedness.
-
Reading Literary Fiction Expands Empathy – Making Empathy Present for the Reader
Time was when it was a bold statement of the obvious that reading a good book expands one’s empathy. It’s summer in the city of Chicago. People are going to the beach, the park, leaving town for the wilderness or… Read More ›
-
Review: Extreme Empathy [I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy by Cris Beam]
Beam is a would-be “bad girl,” who has written a very good book. In a world of constrained, limited empathy, the empathic person is a non-conformist. Beam is one of those, too, and succeeds in sustaining a nuanced skepticism about the alternating hype and over-valuation of empathy over against those who summarily dismiss it. Most ambivalently, she calls out the corporate infatuation with empathy. I paraphrase the corporate approach: Take a walk in the other person’s shoes in order to sell them another pair.
-
Review: Listening Well: The Art of Empathic Understanding by William R. Miller
In case you are unaware of William Miller’s background, he is the innovator behind Motivational Interviewing. Listening well – the practice, not just the title of the book – is at the heart of this approach. In turn, the practice… Read More ›
-
Top four (4) empathy breakdowns – and how to overcome them
Empathy breaks down into emotional contagion. Empathy breaks down in conformity and the closing off of possibilities for flourishing. Empathy breaks down in projection. Empathy breaks down in devaluing and cynical language, in which our humanity literally gets lost in translation. These are not the only ways that empathy fails, but they are the Big Four. How to overcome them?
-
Top Ten (10) Empathy Lessons Trending in the New Year 2018
Here are Empathy Lessons for the New Year ahead. You know what would really interest me? To hear from you (dear reader) what is your empathy lesson? Whether inspired by this list or your own experience over the winter holiday… Read More ›
-
Empathy Lesson: Empathy, Capitalist Tool
Empathy, Capitalist Tool: In this video (two parts) – Lou Agosta is interviewed by Brandon Hamilton about business and empathy on the Russ Meeks Speaks show (Channel 21, Chicago (RCN)) on October 20, 2017 / November 04, 2017. This is… Read More ›
-
Historical Empathy and the 2nd Amendment: About Guns
Putting ourselves in the situation of people who lived years ago in a different historical place and time is a challenge to our empathy. It requires historical empathy. How do we get “our heads around” a world that was fundamentally… Read More ›
-
Empathy Lesson One: Empathy is Not Compassion
Most people think that empathy is compassion; and, heavens knows, the world needs more compassion. But empathy and compassion are distinct.
Empathy Lessons 