Empathy: From Bench to Bedside

Jean Decety

MIT Press, Dec 9, 2011 - Psychology - 334 pages

Recent work on empathy theory, research, and applications, by scholars from disciplines ranging from neuroscience to psychoanalysis.

There are many reasons for scholars to investigate empathy. Empathy plays a crucial role in human social interaction at all stages of life; it is thought to help motivate positive social behavior, inhibit aggression, and provide the affective and motivational bases for moral development; it is a necessary component of psychotherapy and patient-physician interactions. This volume covers a wide range of topics in empathy theory, research, and applications, helping to integrate perspectives as varied as anthropology and neuroscience. The contributors discuss the evolution of empathy within the mammalian brain and the development of empathy in infants and children; the relationships among empathy, social behavior, compassion, and altruism; the neural underpinnings of empathy; cognitive versus emotional empathy in clinical practice; and the cost of empathy.

Taken together, the contributions significantly broaden the interdisciplinary scope of empathy studies, reporting on current knowledge of the evolutionary, social, developmental, cognitive, and neurobiological aspects of empathy and linking this capacity to human communication, including in clinical practice and medical education.

Contents

• Part II The Contribution of Social Psychology: 39
• Part III Evolutionary Roots of Empathy: 85
• Part IV The Development of Empathy: 107
• Part V The Neuroscience of Empathy and Caring: 165
• Part VI Empathy in Clinical Practice: 227
• Contributors: 303
• Author Index: 305
• Subject Index: 319

About the author

Jean Decety is Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he is also Director of the Child Neurosuite. He is the coeditor of The Social Neuroscience of Empathy and The Moral Brain and the editor of Empathy: From Bench to Bedside, all published by the MIT Press.

Jean Decety is Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he is also Director of the Child Neurosuite. He is the coeditor of The Social Neuroscience of Empathy and The Moral Brain and the editor of Empathy: From Bench to Bedside, all published by the MIT Press.

Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen and the author of Self-Awareness and Alterity and Husserl's Phenomenology.

Jean Decety is Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he is also Director of the Child Neurosuite. He is the coeditor of The Social Neuroscience of Empathy and The Moral Brain and the editor of Empathy: From Bench to Bedside, all published by the MIT Press.

Jean Decety is Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he is also Director of the Child Neurosuite. He is the coeditor of The Social Neuroscience of Empathy and The Moral Brain and the editor of Empathy: From Bench to Bedside, all published by the MIT Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Empathy: From Bench to Bedside; Social Neuroscience
• Editor: Jean Decety
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: MIT Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0262297736, 9780262297738
• Length: 334 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Applied Psychology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / Emotions