Their pain is not our pain: Brain and autonomic correlates of empathic resonance with the pain of same and different race individuals

Digital technologies such as online forums afford opportunities for users to circumvent and challenge feeling rules. The online far-right uses such opportunities to challenge feeling rules regarding racialised minority groups, refugees and immigrants, including rules about empathy for such groups. However, while the disruptive features of online far-right practice are widely acknowledged, less has been written about how participants in online far-right forums actually make sense of emotional experiences, including empathy in relation to migrants. This article analyses a Swedish far-right-dominated online discussion thread about non-Swedish EU citizens who ask for money, a group referred to in Sweden as ‘EU-migrants’. From an affective-discursive practice perspective, and focusing on metaphorically constructed interpretative repertoires, the article analyses how participants in the thread make sense of empathy as an actual or possible emotional response to these migrants, as well as how the participants position themselves as subjects in relation to such experiences and various actors involved. The results indicate that the participants are formulating a dual affective-discursive position. First, they present themselves as especially capable of empathic resonance and mirroring, but as righteously angered by EU-migrants’ putative attempts to manipulate this empathic capacity. Second, they disidentify with ‘Swedes’ by presenting themselves as capable of avoiding the seductive and sentimental ‘kindness narcomania’ supposedly deeply rooted in Swedish society, and thereby present themselves as a (counter-)empathic vanguard community in relation to this society. The implications of such affective-discursive practices for far-right online and offline action are discussed.

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Coming to Terms With Invisible Disability—Beyond Empathic Resonance: Commentary on Paper by Lauren Levine

Psychoanalytic Dialogues ◽

10.1080/10481880903088617 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 474-479

Author(s):

Margaret Crastnopol

Keyword(s):

Invisible Disability ◽

Empathic Resonance

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Are Empathic Abilities Impaired in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.106.3.832-844 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 106 (3) ◽

pp. 832-844 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Gabriela Nietlisbach ◽

Andreas Maercker ◽

Wulf Rösler ◽

Helene Haker

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Functions ◽

Self Report ◽

Traumatic Experiences ◽

Reactivity Index ◽

Trauma Survivors ◽

Control Group ◽

Cognitive States ◽

Resonance Test ◽

Empathic Resonance ◽

Ptsd Group

Trauma survivors with PTSD show social interaction and relationship impairments. It is hypothesized that traumatic experiences lead to known PTSD symptoms, empathic ability impairment, and difficulties in sharing affective, emotional, or cognitive states. A PTSD group ( N = 16) and a nontraumatized Control group ( N = 16) were compared on empathic abilities, namely the Empathic Resonance Test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and Faux Pas Test. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index as a self-report measure of empathy and measures of nonsocial cognitive functions, namely the Verbal Fluency Test, the Five-Point Test, and the Stroop Test, were also administered. The PTSD group showed lower empathic resonance. No clear indications of other impairments in social cognitive functions were found. The PTSD group had significantly higher personal distress. Empathic resonance impairments did not correlate with subjective severity of PTSD symptomatology. This article discusses whether impaired empathic resonance in PTSD trauma survivors is a consequence of trauma itself or a protective coping strategy.

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Empathic Resonance and Differential Experiential Processing: An Experiential Process–Directive Approach

American Journal of Psychotherapy ◽

10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2007.61.3.313 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 313-331 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Greet Vanaerschot

Keyword(s):

Experiential Process ◽

Empathic Resonance

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Towards psychedelic apprenticeship: Developing a gentle touch for the mediation and validation of psychedelic-induced insights and revelations

10.31234/osf.io/j5768 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Christopher Timmermann ◽

Rosalind Watts ◽

David Dupuis

Keyword(s):

False Memory ◽

Striking Feature ◽

Ethical Challenges ◽

Central Importance ◽

Cultural Contexts ◽

False Memory Syndrome ◽

Therapeutic Benefits ◽

Iatrogenic Complications ◽

Empathic Resonance ◽

Experienced Therapist

A striking feature of psychedelics is their ability to increase attribution of truth and meaningfulness to specific contents and ideas experienced, which may persist long after psychedelic effects have subsided. We propose that processes underlying conferral of meaning and truth in psychedelic experiences may act as a double-edged sword: while these may drive important therapeutic benefits, they also raise important considerations regarding the validation and mediation of knowledge gained during these experiences. Specifically, the ability of psychedelics to induce noetic feelings of revelation may enhance the significance and attribution of reality of specific beliefs, worldviews, and apparent memories which might exacerbate the risk of iatrogenic complications that other psychotherapeutic approaches have historically faced, such as false memory syndrome. These considerations are timely, as the use of psychedelics is becoming increasingly mainstream, in an environment marked by the emergence of strong commercial interest for psychedelic therapy. We elaborate on these ethical challenges via three examples illustrating issues of validation and mediation in therapeutic, neo-shamanic and research contexts involving psychedelic use. Finally, we propose a pragmatic framework to attend to these challenges based on an ethical approach which considers the embeddedness of psychedelic experiences within larger historical and cultural contexts, their intersubjective character and the use of practices which we conceptualise here as forms of psychedelic apprenticeship. This notion of apprenticeship goes beyond current approaches of preparation and integration by stressing the central importance of validation practices based on empathic resonance by an experienced therapist or guide.

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