Abstract
In the psychoanalytic literature empathy is commonly discussed as a form of “mind reading”, which is deeply associated with the capacity to mirror the other’s mental state. In this paper, I propose an alternative perspective on empathy as the process of reading a distant text. This perspective is illustrated through a Talmudic story and by weaving a thread between Bakhtin, Bion and Lacan. The paper concludes by pointing to the danger of empathy as a hidden form of projective identification that provides the reader with a false sense of control rather than with negative capability for otherness.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Haim (Harvey) Hames, Nandita Chaudhary and Joshua W. Clegg for their constructive reading and Jaan Valsiner for his editorial support.
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Neuman, Y. Empathy: From Mind Reading to the Reading of a Distant Text. Integr. psych. behav. 44, 235–244 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-010-9118-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-010-9118-7