empathy, why it matters and how to get it book notes.

xviii the radical power of empty

A recent study at the University of Michigan revealed a dramatic decline empathy levels of motion Americans between 1980 and today, with the steepest drop being in the last 10 years. The shift face researchers, is in part due to my people living alone and spending less time engaged in social and community activities that nurture aesthetic sensitivity.

Psychologists have also notice an 'academic of narcissism': one 10 Americans exhibit narcissistic personality traits that limit their interests in the lives of others. Many analysts believe that Europe countries are experiencing similar reduction in empathy and increases in narcissism as urban knives and continues to fragment communities, civil engagement decreases, and free-market ideologies deepen in individualism.

Social networks are good at spreading information but- at least to date- adept at spreading empathy.

A study at the University of California shows that the richer you are, the less empathetic you are likely to be-
It seems there is nothing like wealth to making insensitive to human deprivation and suffering.

There have been waves of collective empathetic flowering -
humanitarian revolution in the 18th-century Europe - abolish slavery
led a dramatic decline empathy levels of motion Americans betwee
the decline of torture in their juridical systemn 1980 and today, with the steepest drop being in the last 10 years. The shift face researchers, is in part due to my people living alone and spending less time engaged in social and community activities that nurture aesthetic sensitivity.
Psychologists have also notice an 'academic of narcissism': one 10 Americans exhibit narcissistic personality traits that limit their interests in the lives of others. Many analysts believe that Europe countries are experiencing similar reduction in empathy and increases in narcissism as urban knives and continues to fragment communities, civil engagement decreases, and free-market ideologies deepen in individualism.

Social networks are good at spreading information but- a least to date- adept at spreading empathy.

A study at the University of California shows that the richer you are, the less empathetic you are likely to be-
It seems there is nothing like wealth to making insensitive to human deprivation and suffering.

The radical power empathy xix

There have been waves of collective empathetic flowering - 

humanitarian revolution in the 18th-century Europe - abolish slavery
the decline of torture in the judical system
improvement in prison conditions
growing concerns the right children and workers

Steven Pinker :moral revolution, was rooted in 'the rise of empathy and the regard for human life'

The radical power of empathy xx

economist Richard layard -' if you care more about other people relative to yourself, you're more likely to be happy.'

Personal development thinker Stephen Covey argues that the 'empathic communication' is one of the keys to improving interpersonal relations.

Creative thinking improves with an injection of empathy too, since it enables you to see problems inspectors that would otherwise remain hidden.

xxi the radical power of empathy

Ian McEwan wrote: 'imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.' Mahatma Gandhi:

'whenever you are in doubt when the self becomes too much with you, try the following test. reCall the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen and ask your self is a step you contemplate is going to be any use to him. When he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life in destiny? In other words will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubting yourself melts away.'

xxii the radical power of empathy 

empathy can create a human bonds that make life worth living. Once ritually recognise that we are homo empathicus, social animals who thrive in connection rather than isolation, it makes little sense to suppress the empathetic side of ourselves... Our well-being depends on the static amount of our own egos into the lives of others. .. the Pleasures of doing so real and profound 

John Donne 17th-century

'No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of content a part of the main... Any man's death diminishes me, because I'm involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.'

xxiv the radical power of empathy 

From introspection to outtrospection

the problem, wrote singer, is that we are unlikely to find meaning and purpose by looking inwards: 

obsession with the self-esteem characteristic psychological error of the generation of the 70s and 80s. I do not deny that problems of the self are vitally important; the error consists in seeking answers to those problems with focusing on itself

The medical power of empathy xxv

'if these able, affluent New Yorkers had only got off their analyst's couches, stop thinking about their own problems and contact to do something about the real problems faced by less fortunate people... They would have forgotten their own problems and maybe made the world a better place as well' 

Tom Wolfe described the 1970s as the 'Me decade' , when obsession with the self reaches new hysterical height:

xxvi the radical power of empathy

Introspection began to permeate western society. Words such as self-improvement, self-realisation, self-help and personal empowerment became part of everyday conversation.

Increasingly people express their personal identity to luxury consumption that gave them a taste of wealth, status and privilege. It was an ideal summed up by the artist Barbara Kruger slogan 'I shop therefore I am'the result was a whole generation drawn towards the belief that the pursuit of self-interest- especially the satisfaction of material desire- was the optimum path to personal happiness.'What's in it for me?'Became the defining question of the age.

The radical power of empty xxvi Martin seligmans book authentic happiness (2002) carries a subtitle, using the new positive psychology to release your potential for lasting fulfilment' while Tal Ben-Shehars happier (2007) has the subtitle 'can you learn to be happy?' These books are about 'me' not 'we' they are direct descendants of the me decade of 1970s

Radical power of empathyxxviii 

can't empty be used to manipulate people?

Habit one

switch on your empathetic brains

science fiction science fact?

 Page 3
 it's human nature isn't it?
We tend to pessimistic even cynical about other people survey data across western countries show that we typically think that 'most people are mostly looking out just for themselves.'Empathy, kindness and other farms is benevolent behaviours are genuinely seen as the exception rather than the rule.'

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Charles Darwin's the origin of species, published in 1859 -His theory of natural 'selection and the struggle for existence' reinforced the narrative about innate human selfishness: competition  rather than cooperation was the driver of our  evolutionary history.

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Sigmund Freud - civilization discontent 1930
 particularly scathing of the commandment to 'love one's neighbour as oneself'
'men are not generous creatures,' he wrote, but rather an'inclination to aggression.' Even babies, he argued, had a ruthless drive  to seek their self interest.

Acts of empathy rarely make the headlines