Roots and collapse of empathy : human nature at its best and at its worst / Stein Braten.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bråten, Stein.

Series:

Advances in Consciousness Research, 1381-589X ; 91

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Empathy.

Consciousness.

Physical Description:

xv, 276 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Spanning from care-giving infants and civilian rescuers risking their life to the collapse of empathy in agents of torture and extinction, this unique book deals with and illustrates the altruistic best and atrocious worst of human nature. It begins with infant roots of empathy, then turns to the neurosocial support of empathic participation, and to the nature and nurture of good and ill. It raises questions about how abuse may invite vicious circles of re-enactment, and as to how ordinary people may come to commit torture and mass murders, such as the Auschwitz doctors and the sole terrorist attacking Norway on July 22, 2011.

Contents:

Roots and Collapse of Empathy

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

List of figures

Introduction and overview

Overview of the book's contents in terms of questions for the various chapters

I. Infant roots of empathy and mutual infant-adult attunement

1. Empathic participation: When infants feed others and participate in their movements

Empathic mimicry in an audience exposed to a video of an imitating newborn

Some cross-cultural snapshots of infants feeding their care-givers

Studies of children's (pro)social interaction on four continents

When wartime children are altruistic towards one another

Empathic reaction to crying?

When children come to the aid of children and adults

From altercentricity to altruism - what is the link?

On the partial neurosocial support and memory involved in participant learning

2. Infant and adult in interpersonal communion and upon perturbation

When protoconversation was first revealed by film analyses

Born with the virtual other in mind

Even a prematurely born can engage the parent weeks before normal term

Mutual immediacy of feelings in infant-adult dyads

Perturbation in double video experiments

Comments on and confirmation of the virtual other mechanism

On attachment and modes of reunion in "strange situations"

Fear of strangers and "alien" others nurtured by we-feelings

On long-term consequences of perturbed mother-infant communication

3. Empathic distress, moral development and dilemma-processing

Intersubjective layers operative in social interactions throughout life

Modes of arousal of empathic distress according to Hoffman

Hoffman's account of five stages in the development of empathic distress

Shared pain-processing system pertaining to empathy.

On studies of moral development in terms of principles and moral sentiments

Affective-cognitive inconsistency in paired students processing a moral dilemma

The Prisoners' Dilemma is no dilemma when altruistic feelings are at play

Five types of moral encounters or dilemmas according to Hoffman

II. Empathy, dialogue, and their blockage

4. Empathy and its neurosocial support

Terminology and categories of feelings: Empathy and vitality affects

On imitation by newborns and participant mirroring by the spectators

When toddlers are watching failing adults: Some experimental studies

Returning to the question of neurobiological support: Mirror neurons

Appendix

5. Children hurting and comforting, and being victims of abuse and net-bullying

Some reports on children's anti-social, hostile and aggressive behaviour

Cross-cultural studies of children's (pro)social interaction

Mixed feelings and alternation

Collapse of empathic distress

Victims of neglect, abuse and humiliation in childhood and adolescence

Circular re-enactment of care giving and of abuse

Childhood sentiments and possible paths of recovery

Can dialogue unfold itself in psychotherapy?

The multiple voices of the minds of some childhood abuse victims

On the emergence of the Internet society and social media

Internet media serving terrorism

6. When nature prevents empathy, while opening for special talents

On early misattribution of cause: "The refrigerator mother"

The challenge of being asked "Do as I do!" in a face-to-face situation

Impairments in autism compared to layers in typical development

Returning to the topic of special talents in the autistic spectrum

7. When dialogue breaks down

Group pressure and obedience: Adopting the view of the majority

Submitting to a monolithic perspective.

The idea and ideal of dialogue

Returning to the cases of Leibniz and of Anna Freud

How is it that one sometimes submit to a model monopoly?

Modes of resolution and opening for dialogue between rival perspectives

III. From genocide and terrorism to rescue and altruism

8. How can ordinary persons become agents of torture and extermination?

Collapse of empathy in Milgram's "electric chair" experiments

Totalitarian logics: 'Let there be a world free of evil!'

The torturer's mind: Nazi war criminals

Reserve Police Battalion 101 contributing to the "Final Solution" in Poland

From healers to killers: The Auschwitz Self of the Nazi doctors

May Luhmann's social systems theory pertain to the Holocaust?

Returning to the totalitarian cannon: 'Let there be a world free of evil!'

Returning to the question: What makes us servants of extinction?

9. The sole terrorist's attacks on Norway, July 22, 2011

The terrorist's bombing of the government buildings

The terrorist's massacre on the island: Recounting by some of the survivors

The terrorist's surrender

From the terrorist's "manifesto" on the Internet

Counter-message by mass singing and rose-carrying

From the terrorist's court proceedings and psychiatric diagnoses

If accountable, how could he commit the bombing and massacre?

Could some of the horror have been prevented? On The July 22 Commission's Report

The terrorist's Internet-mediated voice cannot be silenced

On the court's proceedings and verdict

10. From civilian rescuers to this question: Is armed violence declining and non-violent revolt incr

Saved by the boat "Reiulf" which some of the youths stumbled across

Risking their life, civilian boat owners rescue youths swimming from Utöya

Restoring human dignity in spite of the Holocaust: Civilian rescuers.

The three-year-old orphans rescued from the Nazi concentration camps

Altruism, interpersonal networks and group selection

Is armed violence declining? From Einstein and Freud to Steven Pinker

Is non-violent revolt beginning to prevail? From Gene Sharp to the Arab Spring and Women sitting dow

Concluding words: An incredible event of reconciliation in Rwanda

Glossary

Acknowledgments

References

Name index

Subject index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789027271730

9027271739

OCLC:

851696180