Empathy translates the German einfühlungand it can be defined a “biological, cognitive, socialand spiritual phenomenon. In the studies about thought, it has been considered an “identification”(Freud), an emotional fusion with people and things in the aesthetic experience (Hender, Novalis,Lipps), an emotional intuition, perception of the values and of psychic background (Scheler), anintersubjective and transcendental relationship (Husserl), an optimal replyness in the constructiveinteraction (Kohut), other’s experience as the ego and the ego’s one as other (Ricoeur),syntonization, attunement (Stern), full immersion in the others’ subjective world (Rogers), processof sharing emotions (Bonino), phylogenetic tendency as a strategy wired in the deep cerebralcircuits strongly self-structured (Trevarthen, Brothers), that is a universal group of conditions andemotional innate expressions that makes the child already able to exchange empatically theemotions with another person. Empathy can be defined is a process of sharing of the emotions, a basic intra-psychic variable ofthe relationship, a getting hold of someone else’s conscience, the ability of immersion insomeone’s else world. So, empathy is the ability of seeing the world with other’s eyes, leavingown values, feelings, knowledge out of consideration in order to perceive not only the meaningsabout what we know, but also the meanings staying below the conscious surface. According to Trevarthen’s theory the emotions direct the knowledge (that is the attention, the behaviour and the learning) and give them a subjective and communicable valuation. They belong integrally to subject’s reasons and they present a strong innate adaptable organization. Human emotions preside over the regulations of the body, of the conscious self, ofthe intersubjectivity.The emotions resound among the subjects coupling their reasons and their consciousness andanimating them reciprocally. Human emotions are elaborated through socio-cultural and intersubjective learning, but their origin isn’t in it. The concept of empathy is strictly joined with that one of intersubjectivity that may be defined asthe act “to be attuned’ with others intentional states, ability of meta-representation of otherpeople’s mind (thoughts, emotions, intentions), meta-communication, because it transmits to theother confidence in the possibility to contact emotions, to value and formulate decisions, todiscover meanings and personal motives. The emotions, affection – modification of the soul (Aristotele, S.Tommaso, Cartesio), invisible principle of visible actions (Hobbes), confused obscure and involuntary thought (Leibniz),predominance of the feelings over the rationality (Kant), emotional expression functional to thecommunication and to the cohabitation (Darwin), visceral and neurovegetative reaction (James), or in actual terms, mental or affective state in which the subject realizes-perceives the value of asituation, is a complex subjective experience, less steady and strong than feeling and passion,cognitive–affective organizer, mediator between organism and environment, push made dynamicfrom the need according to the trajectory need – emotion – action. It’s, evidently, a very complexphenomenon. According to the theory of the evolution, fear, anger, sadness, joy are basic emotionsregulated from the neuronal programmes associated to the adaptation. Psychoanalysis reads the emotions as spies of conflicts and as openings from which the deniedlustful energy flows away, repressed or removed, interface between beat and action.For the cognitive psychology, on the contrary, the emotion is the interface between organism andenvironment and has got two functions: that one of the monitoring of the environment in order tograsp the meanings and the motivational one that pushes the subject to the action. The constructionism defines emotions as social construction associated to languages, techniquesand values of certain cultures. The neuroscientific searches of LeDoux have explained the iter of emotions: from the input of senses the route arrives at the thalamus that sends the signals to theamygdale that pushes immediately to the action and to the neocortex that, slower but more precise,works out an action plan not impulsive but aware. The reactions in the prefrontal lobes, in the amygdale and in the hippocampus activate moreoverthe immune, nervous autonomous, endocrine systems in a circuit where synergically actperception, emotion, physiological reaction, action. The emotions, therefore, seem to confirm the existence, in the man, of a rational mind and anemotional impulsive and immediate mind, having its own logic, and therefore not irrational. Thisis the demonstration that via rationis and via amoris may be integrated with reciprocal gain. The emotional competence, that is the capacity to be in touch, to monitor and to manage our ownemotions and to be empathic with others’ ones has been defined, by Goleman, emotional intelligence and, by Gardner, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. We have shown as emotions may be defined a complex state of the ego including an increased perception of an object or a situation, deep physiologic modifications (tachycardia, paleness,blush, perspiration, gastro-enteric disorders), attraction and aversion (behaviour of an approach or of hesitation, push to the action). The emotional intelligence (empathy, vision of the heart) about which Goleman speaks, includes consciousness of himself and ability to monitor his own emotions recognizing dysfunctional anddestructive emotions (anger, wish, illusion). According to Paul Ekmann and Richard Davidson, the most important emotions are ten:hanger, fear, sadness, disgust, contempt, surprise (amazement, astonishment), amusement (happiness, joy, serenity), embarrassments, fault, shame. LeDoux’s neurophysiological studies and Goleman’s searches have noticed the existence of anarchives of an emotional memory, the amygdale, that is situated on the cerebral trunk, near thelower of limbic system. There are two amygdales, one on each side of the brain. The human amygdale is relatively voluminous compared to that one of the other primates (thespecies more similar to us according the evolutive point of view). The hippocampus and the amygdale were two basic parts of the rhinencephalon that, during the phylogeny, gave rise to primitive cortex, and then to neo-cortex. Today, these limbic structuresmake a large part of the work of learning and memorization performed by the brain; the amygdaleis specialized in the emotions: if it’s resected by the rest of the brain, the results is a very clearinability of valuing the emotional meaning of the events - a condition defined emotional blindness -. Without their emotional meaning, human relationships lose their importance. Life without amygdale is a life without a personal meaning. All passions, including love, are bound to the amygdale. The amygdale, because it receives the input before they are recorded by the neo-cortex, picks themicro-impressions and harmonizes the cerebral areas using neural connections and the samerational mind. So, our emotions have a mind that is able to have different opinions by the rationalmind’s ones. The empathy, according to Goleman, has got its roots in the self-consciousness. The emotionalwavelength is the result of the capacity to contact our emotions and to read tones, emotionalexpressions, gestures that reveals other’s feeling also when they aren’t verbal. The empathy, as we can see from this researches, is a very important component in child’sdevelopment. In very little children the sight of others’ suffering causes a kind of camouflage of the movement , a reaction to the other people’s agitation experienced like his own, that disappearsaround the two years. We have to add that the resound, or the lack of it, between mother and her child, shapes one’sfuture emotional expectations as concern the possibility that other people want and can share hisfeeling. The lack of tuning between parents and children has got as consequence the atrophy of theemotions, as we can see from criminals’ stories of life. According to Goleman the empathy has its source on physiological bases and it’s also the root of the morality: in fact, there’s a strict linkbetween empathy and altruism and the same fact to put oneself into others’ shoes makes the application of moral principles easier. Already in the childhood it’s possible to share sick persons and outcasts’ suffering but in the adolescence the empathic capacity becomes proactive and pro-social making more vigorous project directed to the justice and to peace. The emotional intelligence is, therefore, certainly, a basic aptitude of life, that may be shaped from family and school influences: it promotes healthy and durable relations and makes the school and work success easier. Just as plastic, the emotional intelligence must be cultivated in the childhood and in the adolescence. The neuroplasticity of the brain pens it to develop always new synaptical connections. RichardDavidson’s (8B) search has shown that the functions of prefrontal lobes in relation with the limbicsystem let us mix thought and feelings, knowledge and emotion. Emotions involve anorchestration of the activity of the circuits of all brain, in particular of the frontal lobe in whichreside the executive functions (for ex. planning), in the amygdale, very active when we feelnegative emotions like the fear; and in the hippocampus that is involved in both explicit andimplicit memory processes. Besides, the frontal lobes, the left for the positive emotions, the rightfor those negative ones, the amygdale and the hippocampus are connected with the immune,endocrine, nervous autonomous system. The emotions, therefore, push over the mental health but also over that physical one. The lack of empathy exposes the subject to a range of risks that go from blues to troubles of thefeeding, to the violence, behaviours, unfortunately, in increase in the new generations. Conflicts, faults and suffering are the emotions that we cannot manage and that may destroy us: the hanger ismother of violence, the wish and the illusion produce dependence. It’s urgent to discover, to understand and to take care of those ones that Goleman calls destructive emotions: hanger, wish, illusion to cultivate positive emotions. The task of education in that is essential. Education that harmonize mind and heart, bringing intelligence into our life of relation, can enhance in children the growth of consciousness, empathy, self-control, cooperation, sociality.

Perception, Emotion, Action in Early Development: Empathy from an Integrated Philosophical-Neuroscientific Approach

D'ALESSIO, Chiara;
2009-01-01

Abstract

Empathy translates the German einfühlungand it can be defined a “biological, cognitive, socialand spiritual phenomenon. In the studies about thought, it has been considered an “identification”(Freud), an emotional fusion with people and things in the aesthetic experience (Hender, Novalis,Lipps), an emotional intuition, perception of the values and of psychic background (Scheler), anintersubjective and transcendental relationship (Husserl), an optimal replyness in the constructiveinteraction (Kohut), other’s experience as the ego and the ego’s one as other (Ricoeur),syntonization, attunement (Stern), full immersion in the others’ subjective world (Rogers), processof sharing emotions (Bonino), phylogenetic tendency as a strategy wired in the deep cerebralcircuits strongly self-structured (Trevarthen, Brothers), that is a universal group of conditions andemotional innate expressions that makes the child already able to exchange empatically theemotions with another person. Empathy can be defined is a process of sharing of the emotions, a basic intra-psychic variable ofthe relationship, a getting hold of someone else’s conscience, the ability of immersion insomeone’s else world. So, empathy is the ability of seeing the world with other’s eyes, leavingown values, feelings, knowledge out of consideration in order to perceive not only the meaningsabout what we know, but also the meanings staying below the conscious surface. According to Trevarthen’s theory the emotions direct the knowledge (that is the attention, the behaviour and the learning) and give them a subjective and communicable valuation. They belong integrally to subject’s reasons and they present a strong innate adaptable organization. Human emotions preside over the regulations of the body, of the conscious self, ofthe intersubjectivity.The emotions resound among the subjects coupling their reasons and their consciousness andanimating them reciprocally. Human emotions are elaborated through socio-cultural and intersubjective learning, but their origin isn’t in it. The concept of empathy is strictly joined with that one of intersubjectivity that may be defined asthe act “to be attuned’ with others intentional states, ability of meta-representation of otherpeople’s mind (thoughts, emotions, intentions), meta-communication, because it transmits to theother confidence in the possibility to contact emotions, to value and formulate decisions, todiscover meanings and personal motives. The emotions, affection – modification of the soul (Aristotele, S.Tommaso, Cartesio), invisible principle of visible actions (Hobbes), confused obscure and involuntary thought (Leibniz),predominance of the feelings over the rationality (Kant), emotional expression functional to thecommunication and to the cohabitation (Darwin), visceral and neurovegetative reaction (James), or in actual terms, mental or affective state in which the subject realizes-perceives the value of asituation, is a complex subjective experience, less steady and strong than feeling and passion,cognitive–affective organizer, mediator between organism and environment, push made dynamicfrom the need according to the trajectory need – emotion – action. It’s, evidently, a very complexphenomenon. According to the theory of the evolution, fear, anger, sadness, joy are basic emotionsregulated from the neuronal programmes associated to the adaptation. Psychoanalysis reads the emotions as spies of conflicts and as openings from which the deniedlustful energy flows away, repressed or removed, interface between beat and action.For the cognitive psychology, on the contrary, the emotion is the interface between organism andenvironment and has got two functions: that one of the monitoring of the environment in order tograsp the meanings and the motivational one that pushes the subject to the action. The constructionism defines emotions as social construction associated to languages, techniquesand values of certain cultures. The neuroscientific searches of LeDoux have explained the iter of emotions: from the input of senses the route arrives at the thalamus that sends the signals to theamygdale that pushes immediately to the action and to the neocortex that, slower but more precise,works out an action plan not impulsive but aware. The reactions in the prefrontal lobes, in the amygdale and in the hippocampus activate moreoverthe immune, nervous autonomous, endocrine systems in a circuit where synergically actperception, emotion, physiological reaction, action. The emotions, therefore, seem to confirm the existence, in the man, of a rational mind and anemotional impulsive and immediate mind, having its own logic, and therefore not irrational. Thisis the demonstration that via rationis and via amoris may be integrated with reciprocal gain. The emotional competence, that is the capacity to be in touch, to monitor and to manage our ownemotions and to be empathic with others’ ones has been defined, by Goleman, emotional intelligence and, by Gardner, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. We have shown as emotions may be defined a complex state of the ego including an increased perception of an object or a situation, deep physiologic modifications (tachycardia, paleness,blush, perspiration, gastro-enteric disorders), attraction and aversion (behaviour of an approach or of hesitation, push to the action). The emotional intelligence (empathy, vision of the heart) about which Goleman speaks, includes consciousness of himself and ability to monitor his own emotions recognizing dysfunctional anddestructive emotions (anger, wish, illusion). According to Paul Ekmann and Richard Davidson, the most important emotions are ten:hanger, fear, sadness, disgust, contempt, surprise (amazement, astonishment), amusement (happiness, joy, serenity), embarrassments, fault, shame. LeDoux’s neurophysiological studies and Goleman’s searches have noticed the existence of anarchives of an emotional memory, the amygdale, that is situated on the cerebral trunk, near thelower of limbic system. There are two amygdales, one on each side of the brain. The human amygdale is relatively voluminous compared to that one of the other primates (thespecies more similar to us according the evolutive point of view). The hippocampus and the amygdale were two basic parts of the rhinencephalon that, during the phylogeny, gave rise to primitive cortex, and then to neo-cortex. Today, these limbic structuresmake a large part of the work of learning and memorization performed by the brain; the amygdaleis specialized in the emotions: if it’s resected by the rest of the brain, the results is a very clearinability of valuing the emotional meaning of the events - a condition defined emotional blindness -. Without their emotional meaning, human relationships lose their importance. Life without amygdale is a life without a personal meaning. All passions, including love, are bound to the amygdale. The amygdale, because it receives the input before they are recorded by the neo-cortex, picks themicro-impressions and harmonizes the cerebral areas using neural connections and the samerational mind. So, our emotions have a mind that is able to have different opinions by the rationalmind’s ones. The empathy, according to Goleman, has got its roots in the self-consciousness. The emotionalwavelength is the result of the capacity to contact our emotions and to read tones, emotionalexpressions, gestures that reveals other’s feeling also when they aren’t verbal. The empathy, as we can see from this researches, is a very important component in child’sdevelopment. In very little children the sight of others’ suffering causes a kind of camouflage of the movement , a reaction to the other people’s agitation experienced like his own, that disappearsaround the two years. We have to add that the resound, or the lack of it, between mother and her child, shapes one’sfuture emotional expectations as concern the possibility that other people want and can share hisfeeling. The lack of tuning between parents and children has got as consequence the atrophy of theemotions, as we can see from criminals’ stories of life. According to Goleman the empathy has its source on physiological bases and it’s also the root of the morality: in fact, there’s a strict linkbetween empathy and altruism and the same fact to put oneself into others’ shoes makes the application of moral principles easier. Already in the childhood it’s possible to share sick persons and outcasts’ suffering but in the adolescence the empathic capacity becomes proactive and pro-social making more vigorous project directed to the justice and to peace. The emotional intelligence is, therefore, certainly, a basic aptitude of life, that may be shaped from family and school influences: it promotes healthy and durable relations and makes the school and work success easier. Just as plastic, the emotional intelligence must be cultivated in the childhood and in the adolescence. The neuroplasticity of the brain pens it to develop always new synaptical connections. RichardDavidson’s (8B) search has shown that the functions of prefrontal lobes in relation with the limbicsystem let us mix thought and feelings, knowledge and emotion. Emotions involve anorchestration of the activity of the circuits of all brain, in particular of the frontal lobe in whichreside the executive functions (for ex. planning), in the amygdale, very active when we feelnegative emotions like the fear; and in the hippocampus that is involved in both explicit andimplicit memory processes. Besides, the frontal lobes, the left for the positive emotions, the rightfor those negative ones, the amygdale and the hippocampus are connected with the immune,endocrine, nervous autonomous system. The emotions, therefore, push over the mental health but also over that physical one. The lack of empathy exposes the subject to a range of risks that go from blues to troubles of thefeeding, to the violence, behaviours, unfortunately, in increase in the new generations. Conflicts, faults and suffering are the emotions that we cannot manage and that may destroy us: the hanger ismother of violence, the wish and the illusion produce dependence. It’s urgent to discover, to understand and to take care of those ones that Goleman calls destructive emotions: hanger, wish, illusion to cultivate positive emotions. The task of education in that is essential. Education that harmonize mind and heart, bringing intelligence into our life of relation, can enhance in children the growth of consciousness, empathy, self-control, cooperation, sociality.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/2297620
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