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Concern and Empathy: Two Concepts or One?

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis volume 68, pages 257–275 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

For years, concern was treated as a marginal concept in psychoanalytic thought. Awareness of its importance increased due to the rise of object-relations theories: Suttie's description of the inborn impulse to give, attachment theory and the behavioral system of caregiving, and of course the emphasis on concern in the theoretical thinking of Winnicott, who even wanted to change the Kleinian term depressive position to stage of concern. However, the centrality that empathy took on with the appearance of self psychology made it seem unnecessary to pay separate attention to concern. The relational approach sheds new light on the concept of concern. This paper proposes distinguishing between empathy and concern as two different mental functions that affect each other. Under normal conditions they are intertwined and produce the unique way in which the individual relates to others.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel

    Rami Tolmacz

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  1. Rami Tolmacz
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Correspondence to Rami Tolmacz.

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1Ph.D is a faculty member in the clinical psychology program of the Bar-Ilan University Department of Psychology, as well as a practicing clinical psychologist and supervisor.

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Tolmacz, R. Concern and Empathy: Two Concepts or One?. Am J Psychoanal 68, 257–275 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2008.22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2008.22

Keywords

  • concern
  • empathy
  • object-relations
  • intersubjectivity