Beyond Empathy

A Hermeneutically Inspired Inquiry into Interpersonal Understanding in Psychotherapy

Bibliographic Data

ID20400331
AuthorsJack Martins (0000-0002-8612-958X, Simon Fraser University, corresponding author), Jack Martin, Darek Dawda (Simon Fraser University)
Year1999
Volume9
Issue4
Pages459-481
Publication date1999-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheory & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-3543 • E-ISSN: 1461-7447
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959354399094002
OpenAlexW2094671706
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

A critical, hermeneutically inspired interpretation of interpersonal understanding is presented as a clarification of, and supplement to, extant accounts of psychotherapeutic empathy. Particular emphasis is placed on the achievement of a degree of self-distanciation from one's own pre-understanding, and a partial penetration of the symbolic orders and sociocultural situatedness of the other through a critical dialogue of open question and answer, together with a dialogically emergent appreciation of the social power practices inherent in the psychotherapeutic encounter itself. It is concluded that subjectivist accounts provide inadequate bases for the kinds of change assumed in most theories of psychotherapeutic empathy and understanding. Only when the possibility of heightened self- and other-understanding is preserved in a non-subjectivist, critical interpretation that respects individual subjective experience without granting it epistemic privilege do the institution and practice of psychotherapy maintain a coherent rationale

Empathy · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Interpersonal communication · Intersubjectivity · Subjectivism · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

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