Abstract
Responding to victims empathically requires integrating two apparently opposite realities: seeing the victimized person as vulnerable and innocent while recognizing that person as influential and culpable. When this integration is too painful, helpers disidentify from and project onto the victim, becoming either Disaffected Others or Emphatic Sympathizers and further contributing to the client's victimization. To be Empathic Helpers we need supportive communities in which we explore our painful feelings around vulnerability and culpability so that we can maintain our identification with our victimized clients and lead them to a full understanding of themselves and their experience.
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Gibbons, D., Lichtenberg, P. & van Beusekom, J. Working with victims: Being empathic helpers. Clin Soc Work J 22, 211–222 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190475
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190475