Tag: fulfillment

What prevents me from empathizing?

Although empathy is a progression, Stein would say that empathy might not be fulfilled. It might stay at the first level which is merely an awareness of some foreign experience.

Image by Gary Cassel from Pixabay

Stein fleshes out this empathic non-fulfillment in the discussion she brings about Lipps’ position. Lipps says that this non-fulfillment is due to “negative empathy.” Negative empathy means some of my experiences (i.e. any personal reasons) that prevent me from fulfilling an empathic experience. He contrasted this with positive empathy wherein my experiences add to the probability of the full experiencing of empathy. For Lipps, this negative empathy that is in me is the reason that sometimes I cannot fully empathize with someone.

For Stein, on the other hand, empathic non-fulfillment is due to a case of “cogito,” or the focus of one’s attention. I cannot fulfill empathy when I am not focusing my glance on the other’s unique experience. Because of the many impulses from the outside, I have to select which to focus on. And this means that not all, not even the other individual, can become the object of my attention. To fully empathize with someone, thus, I have to turn my attention to the foreign experience, and focus on it.

Empathic Experience

In the past few days, I’ve posted the three levels of empathic experience according to Edith Stein, going through them one by one. I attempted to have a broad presentation about them. Here, I’ll summarize the three levels.

Empathic experience is not merely an awareness of the emotional states of other people. Rather, it goes through levels, which would mean that it is a lived experience. With empathy, I live through the experience of the other.

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

A Summary of the Three Levels

The first level is empathic awareness. This is the start of any empathic experience. In here, I have an awareness of what the other individual is feeling. But if I follow through the other’s lead, then the experience will advance to the second level.

The second level is empathic fulfillment. This is the apex of any empathic experience. What happens here is that I would be “at” the place of the other individual, making myself as if the other. Intimacy builds here. And when this is complete, the experience advances to the third level.

The third level is empathic comprehension. This is the final phase of any empathic experience. In here, I have a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the experience of the other individual. In this level, I recognize that my experience is foreign.

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Example

Here is one example of how these three levels play out:

While walking into the hallway of the school, I saw my friend. She was sitting on the bench, but with all smiles while reading a book. Right there and then, I knew that she’s happy (empathic awareness). I was about to walk past her because I knew that I shouldn’t disturb her.

But she was able to glance at me. She called me over while she closed the book. I could tell that her eyes were filled with joy. I sat beside her and she told me about what happened that made her elated. As I listened, I was able to understand her joy as if I was her in the situation (empathic fulfillment). I understood that she and her parents were okay now, and that they were able to hug each other.

Then after a while, I was able to “get to my senses” and comprehended her joy and the reason for that joy (empathic comprehension). I recognized that it was her unique experience. I was not living my own experience, but hers.

Then, someone called her name. It was her sister. So, she said bye.

Empathic Fulfillment

Stein would say that a person’s empathic experience might stay at empathic awareness, the first level. This would probably be due to various reasons. But it can proceed to the second level if the situation permits.

For Edith Stein, there are three (3) levels of empathic experience. This would mean that empathy lets the subject go through a unique experience, so unique that Stein would say that it is sui generis.

Empathic Fulfillment

The second level of empathic experience is fulfilling explication. This refers to the intimate experience of being “at” the place of the other subject as if the subject becomes one with the other subject. In layman’s terms, this would be “putting oneself in the other’s shoes.” For Stein (p.12), this level is the “highest level of the consummation of empathy,” agreeing with Lipps.

Whereas in the first level the subject faces the other subject, in the second level the subject is at the other subject’s place.

It should be pointed out that for Stein, individuality is still preserved even in this intimate connection. Meaning to say, I do not become the other. While empathizing, I would always be myself and the other would still be a wholly other. It is just that, in empathy, I would be experiencing things as if I am in the other’s place.

Also, it should be noted that even at this level, emotional response from the subject is not warranted, and therefore may not happen. But, of course, sympathy might happen because of empathy.

Empathic Fulfillment in Practice

What does empathic fulfillment look like in practice?

Have you not experienced losing yourself (i.e., not conscious of yourself) when you were listening with your best friend? Have you never wondered that you know why a person feels this or that way? Have you not noticed that you seem to truly understand your friend’s grief over the loss of a loved one? Have you not experienced knowing the plight of a street vendor? Have you not noticed that you seem to understand the wrath your mother feels over your father?

This kind of understanding of what the other feels, as if you are the other, is what Stein calls empathy. This level is indeed the peak of the empathic experience.

P.S. All of the above is based on Edith Stein’s On the Problem of Empathy.

P.P.S. A disclosure: “empathic fulfillment” is my own term as I describe the second level of empathic experience.

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