Empathy training

[thana ag]

Dear Jim,

In response to your request ,I wanted to send you few ideas:  I used to 
really enjoy offerring   empathy training . But then the obvious ocurred to 
me: Have you tried to establish an empathic relationship with him?  Did you 
ask yourself: How do I  exprience myself  in his presence?  What is my 
experience of him?  Do I feel empathic towards him?  Can I resonate 
empathically with him? Can he  receive empathy from me?   This is where the  
empathy  teaching would start.
It should not  take you long to realize whether your efforts are futile. 
Should that be the case new Qs arise.
  >From: James Sacks <jmsacks at mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: list at grouptalkweb.org
>To: Adam Blatner <adam at blatner.com>, list at grouptalkweb.org
>Subject: Re: Empathy training
>Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:13:36 -0600
>
>Dear Jim,
>Most obvious idea is to use a lot of role reversal, frequently asking him 
>his name when he is in the role reversed position to make sure he remembers 
>whom he is portraying and not slipping out of role. Then making sure the 
>mental state of the person whose role he is assuming is pleasant, then, bit 
>by bit, letting the circumstances into which he will be entering become  
>progressively more more painful. After that he can experiment with adopting 
>the role of a benevolent person responding a the person in distress. After 
>all this, I suspect that he  will not have changed much. The reason he 
>committed the offense may not be that he has no  empathy but that he  knows 
>exactly what his victim is feeling and and that it is is to induce that 
>very feeling in the other that he enacted his crime. More likely he has an 
>unconscious fear that something horrible could be perpetrated on him so he 
>simply reverses role internally and becomes he perpetrator as opposed to 
>the victim. He reenacts the scene he fears but in the safer role. Coming 
>from a male dominated society makes the fantasy more believable. Maybe he 
>fears the power of women. Maybe he can assume the role of torturer or 
>rapist more easily because of having weak ego strength i.e. he can change 
>identities easily because he has an unstable sense of who he is and a 
>fragile hold on reality.
>
>Jim Sacks
>
>>Dear Grouptalk Colleagues, I received an email from  Jim Catlin (   
>><mailto:jcatlin at discover-net.net>jcatlin at discover-net.net  ) who writes: 
>>I'm a psychotherapist from Wisconsin and I am seeing an Asian gentleman 
>>(from a male-dominant culture) on an outpatient basis who committed a 
>>horrific crime almost 10 years ago.  He was found not guilty by reason of 
>>mental defect and was recently released from one of our state mental 
>>institutions.  Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who 
>>have worked w/him all the way back to his crime believe that he has little 
>>or no capacity for empathy; he's informally diagnosed with Narc Pers Dis.  
>>One of the goals I have set for myself (and him) is to find ways to 
>>"teach" him empathy, to have him behave in empathic ways, and ultimately 
>>become empathic himself, to whatever degree we can get to. I read your 
>>online article on teaching empathy and it has given me some solid basic 
>>ideas/approaches I can use use w/him, plus several areas I can further 
>>research for materials/resources.  Do you know of any other curricula, 
>>tools, or resources that exist for teaching adults to become empathic?  
>>I'm wondering if anyone has put together a sort of treatment curriculum 
>>(like with sex offender programs) that is effective in the 
>>empathy-building area.  tks, Jim          ... and Jim gave me permission 
>>to forward this to y'all... to write him if you have ideas.
>>
>>Grouptalk mailing list
>>List at grouptalkweb.org
>>http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org


>Grouptalk mailing list
>List at grouptalkweb.org
>http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org

_________________________________________________________________
Get live scores and news about your team: Add the Live.com Football Page  
http://www.live.com/?addtemplate=football