Against Empathy

Against Empathy PDF Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062339354
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
New York Post Best Book of 2016 We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make.

Against Empathy

Against Empathy PDF Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062339354
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
New York Post Best Book of 2016 We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make.

Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse

Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse PDF Author: Frank R. Ascione
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557531438
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Evidence is mounting that animal abuse, frequently embedded in families scarred by domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, often predicts the potential for other violent acts. As early intervention is critical in the prevention and reduction of aggression, this book encourages researchers and professionals to recognize animal abuse as a significant problem and a human public-health issue that should be included as a curriculum topic in training. The book is an interdisciplinary source book of original essays that examines the relations between animal maltreatment and human interpersonal violence, expands the scope of research in this growing area, and provides practical assessment and documentation strategies to help professionals confronting violence do their jobs better by attending to these connections. As an outgrowth of the Latham Foundation's 1995 training manual, Breaking the Cycles of Violence, this book is a historic step in helping professionals from these disciplines, as well as the general public, recognize the cyclical and insidious nature of family violence and provides training in recognizing peripheral forms of family violence outside a family's immediate purview. It encourages cross-disciplinary prevention and intervention strategies with an ultimate goal of reducing the levels of violence which is such a great societal and cultural concern today. This book brings together, for the first time, all of the leaders in this emerging field. They examine contemporary research and programmatic issues, encourage cross-disciplinary interactions, and describe innovative programs in the field today. Also included are vivid first-person accounts from survivors whose experiences included animal maltreatment among other forms of family violence. Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse provides professional communities of psychologists and child welfare specialists with a deeper, higher, and more encompassing awareness and understanding of the crucial linking of caring for animals and children in human experience. The combination of careful research, documentation, and compelling narrative accounts are blended into a rich resource to help professionals, concerned citizens, and parents understand how the ethics of caring are not bounded by species.

Treating Attachment Abuse

Treating Attachment Abuse PDF Author: Steven Stosny, PhD
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
ISBN: 082618961X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Attachment abuse can involve both physical and emotional violence between people in close relationships, which includes couples, parents and their children, and adult children and their aging parents, among others. Attachment abusers blame their victims for their own feelings of shame, inadequacy, or inability to love. Dr. Stosnyís innovative and integrative approach to the treatment of attachment abuse emphasizes the importance of compassion for both the abused and the abuser. This hands-on manual provides a series of treatment modules designed to teach the perpetrators and the victims how to cope with their feelings and to end attachment abuse. This volume will be of interest to psychotherapists, group therapists, social workers, and counselors working with abusive clients and their victims.

Man Alive

Man Alive PDF Author: Thomas Page McBee
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1786890895
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
If he is to become a man, what sort of man should Thomas Page McBee be? To find out, McBee must confront the suffering he has endured at the hands of men: the abuse he endured as a child from his father, and the violent mugging which almost killed him as an adult. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood, and reclaim his body on his own terms. Powerful, uplifting and profound, Man Alive is a story about transformation; about freedom, and love, and finding the strength to rebuild ourselves as the people we are meant to be.

The Dark Sides of Empathy

The Dark Sides of Empathy PDF Author: Fritz Breithaupt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501735616
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Many consider empathy to be the basis of moral action. However, the ability to empathize with others is also a prerequisite for deliberate acts of humiliation and cruelty. In The Dark Sides of Empathy, Fritz Breithaupt contends that people often commit atrocities not out of a failure of empathy but rather as a direct consequence of over-identification and a desire to increase empathy. Even well-meaning compassion can have many unintended consequences, such as intensifying conflicts or exploiting others. Empathy plays a central part in a variety of highly problematic behaviors. From mere callousness to terrorism, exploitation to sadism, and emotional vampirism to stalking, empathy all too often motivates and promotes malicious acts. After tracing the development of empathy as an idea in German philosophy, Breithaupt looks at a wide-ranging series of case studies—from Stockholm syndrome to Angela Merkel's refugee policy and from novels of the romantic era to helicopter parents and murderous cheerleader moms—to uncover how narcissism, sadism, and dangerous celebrity obsessions alike find their roots in the quality that, arguably, most makes us human.

The Politics of Compassion

The Politics of Compassion PDF Author: Michael Ure
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317915526
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book provides a critical overview of the role of the emotions in politics. Compassion is a politically charged virtue, and yet we know surprisingly little about the uses (and abuses) of compassion in political environments. Covering sociology, political theory and psychology, and with contributions from Martha Nussbaum and Andrew Linklater amongst others, the book gives a succinct overview of the main theories of political compassion and the emotions in politics. It covers key concepts such as humanitarianism, political emotion and agency in relation to compassion as a political virtue. The Politics of Compassion is a fascinating resource for students and scholars of political theory, international relations, political sociology and psychology.

Practicing Compassion

Practicing Compassion PDF Author: Frank Rogers Jr.
Publisher: Upper Room Books
ISBN: 1935205277
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Praise for Practicing Compassion Everybody believes in compassion, but nobody tells you how to practice it. Until now. Frank Rogers turns compassion into a doable, daily practice—as simple as catching your breath and taking your pulse. If you want to read a book that actually has the capacity to change your life (and the world), beginning today, this is the book to read. —Brian D. McLaren Author/speaker/blogger/activist (brianmclaren.net) If you want clear, practical guidance on how to cultivate the inner resources to become a healing presence and force of good for the world, there is no better book than this and no better guide than Frank Rogers. —John Makransky Professor of Comparative Theology, Boston College Author of Awakening through Love Compassion is more than a sympathetic feeling—it's the bond of human connection. Most religions lift up compassion, yet few people actually teach how to practice it. Through rich and moving stories of people from various faiths, Frank Rogers shows ways to incorporate compassion in our daily lives. His interfaith perspective on mercy, kindness, and caring for one another trains us to Pay attention, Understand empathically, Love with connection, Sense the sacredness, and Embody new life (PULSE).

Teaching Compassion: Humane Education in Early Childhood

Teaching Compassion: Humane Education in Early Childhood PDF Author: Mary Renck Jalongo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400769229
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In response to highly publicized incidents of school violence, educators across the United States and in many other nations are seeking effective ways to prevent and modify aggressive and anti-social behaviors in students. One of the major recommendations of the research is that efforts to prevent cruelty need to begin early, during the early childhood years of birth through age eight. The focus of Teaching Compassion: Humane Education in Early Childhood is guiding young children to accept responsibility for and to be kind in their interactions with fellow human beings, animals and the environment. Although humane education is a relatively new concept in the field of early childhood education, professionals in the field are very familiar with many of the related concepts, including: promoting positive interpersonal interactions, teaching children the skills of self-regulation, giving children experience in caring for living things and protecting the environment. This edited volume is an interdisciplinary compendium of professional wisdom gathered from experts in the fields of education, child development, science, psychology, sociology and humane organizations. As the book amply documents, the concept of humane education is powerful, integrative, timely and appropriate in work with young children. Teaching Compassion: Humane Education in Early Childhood shows how it is possible for adults dedicated to the care and education of young children to balance attention to the cognitive and affective realms and, in so doing, to elevate the overall quality of early childhood programs for children, families and communities.

Compassion in Practice

Compassion in Practice PDF Author: Frank Rogers
Publisher: Upper Room Books
ISBN: 0835815684
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Jesus was a spiritual teacher who demonstrated personal and social transformation. His earliest disciples were first known not as Christians but as followers of the Way. Jesus' Way was a spirituality of radical compassion. He taught how to love and be loved by an extravagantly compassionate God; how to cultivate love for ourselves; and how to love our neighbors by extending love to the outcasts, the offensive, and even our enemies. Compassion in Practice is an introduction to Christian compassion. It explains not just what Christian compassion looks like but how to practice it in a world ravaged by violence, fear, and reactivity. This book teaches us how to love as Jesus loved. Expanding on the foundation of Practicing Compassion, Frank Rogers defines the way Jesus prepared his disciples to transform hearts hardened from the assaults of life into compassionate hearts.

The Heart of Compassion

The Heart of Compassion PDF Author: Dalai Lama XIV Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho
Publisher: Lotus Press
ISBN: 9780940985360
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The Dalai Lama guides readers step by step to an understanding of the human condition and how one can act to achieve a higher fulfillment than pure worldly enjoyment.