Empathy Lessons

Recent Posts - page 14

• Review: Extreme Empathy [I Feel You: The Surprising Power of Extreme Empathy by Cris Beam]

  By Lou Agosta on June 12, 2018

  

  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

  By Lou Agosta on June 2, 2018

  

  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

  By Lou Agosta on April 29, 2018

  

  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

  By Lou Agosta on January 7, 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

  By Lou Agosta on October 29, 2017 • ( 1 )

  

  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

  By Lou Agosta on October 3, 2017

  

  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

  By Lou Agosta on August 30, 2017

  

  Most people think that empathy is compassion; and, heavens knows, the world needs more compassion. But empathy and compassion are distinct.

• Empathy and Neuroscience Class: Register Now [UChicago Graham School]

  By Lou Agosta on March 4, 2017

  

  Empathy is oxygen for the soul. So if you are feeling short of breath due to life stresses, perhaps one needs expanded empathy. Get some here. This is what you need to know to register. Further details on the course content… Read More ›

• Psychiatry and Horror – in the Movies!

  By Lou Agosta on February 5, 2017

  

  In addition to mastering the unknown through its depiction, the “pay off” is to confront images of the fragmentation of the self, annihilation of the self, and loss of control of the self’s boundaries. That is perhaps why audiences are strangely attracted to horror films. They give a specific form to our most primitive fears, binding these deep fears to a specific something that can be objectified and can be overcome by the cinematic equivalent of the “cavalry to the rescue” or even by counter magic. It should be noted that people run from the theatre if they believe their lives are really in danger; but the views stay in their seats, having actually paid money to be frightened vicariously by the experience of watching a horror film.

• 10 Top Empathy Trends and Predictions for 2017

  By Lou Agosta on January 7, 2017

  

  This work aims to be educational in a brain-storming way about the role of empathy in the community and the market for empathy services. Hanna Holborn Gray has said that “education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think.” I hereby also add: The intention of education is to expand one’s empathy. Amazingly enough that is not as comfortable as many people might imagine, which brings up to the first trend – resistance to empathy.

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