Empathy: from mind reading to the reading of a distant text.
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.
Neuman
Yair
Y
Office for Interdisciplinary Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653 84105, Beer-Sheva, Israel. yneuman@bgu.ac.il
D001633:Bible; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008091:Literature; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011932:Reading