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Levels of Empathy – Primary, Extended, and Reiterated Empathy

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Abstract

Concepts such as “theory of mind”, “simulation”, or “mentalization” have in common that they conceive of social understanding and empathy as a projection onto others of inner modellings or representations. In contrast, Fuchs presents a non-representational concept of primary empathy, based on an embodied and enactive view of intersubjectivity. According to this concept, social understanding is not realized within one individual, but arises in the moment-to-moment interaction of two subjects. To further explicate this perspective, the author examines different levels of empathy and their interrelations: the development of social understanding in early infancy, different forms of extended empathy as enabled by perspective-taking and other cognitive components, and reiterated empathy in which we experience the empathic reaction of others towards ourselves.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    False belief tests are typically performed in the following way. After introducing two dolls, Sally and Ann, the experimenter presents a short skit: Sally takes a marble and hides it in her basket. She then leaves the room and goes for a walk. While she is away, Anne takes the marble out of Sally’s basket and puts it in her own one. Sally is then reintroduced and the child is asked the key question: “Where will Sally look for her marble?” Children before the age of four will typically point to Ann’s basket, because they (wrongly) assume Sally to have the same knowledge as they have themselves (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1986; Perner, Stummer, Sprung, & Doherty, 2002).

  2. 2.

    This is also the case when bodily resonance includes imitative components, for example, movement impulses that mirror gestures and actions of others – possibly as mediated by the brain’s system of mirror neurons. However, these imitative tendencies, too, remain typically unaware, which inhibits the complex process of simulation and reflective projection from taking place at all. For a critique of the trend to shift simulation to subpersonal, or more specifically, to neuronal processes, see Gallagher (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatric Department, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Thomas Fuchs

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  1. Thomas Fuchs
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Correspondence to Thomas Fuchs .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Vanessa Lux

  2. ZfL Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Sigrid Weigel

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Fuchs, T. (2017). Levels of Empathy – Primary, Extended, and Reiterated Empathy. In: Lux, V., Weigel, S. (eds) Empathy. Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51299-4_2

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