Excerpt from Chapter 6--Myths about empathy and mirror neurons

Myths about Empathy and Mirror Neurons

?This chapter is a bit more dense and complex, citing neuroscience and empathy research, so I have chosen to simply present the abstract and a pithy quote from Alford on empathy and mirror neurons.

One would have thought the proponents of mirror neurons would have devoted more time and attention to explain how it is that humans are thoroughly capable of ignoring the suffering of people just like them, even when they live next door, around the block, or down the street.?The answer is ideology, propaganda, culture, tradition, and prejudice.?Mirror neurons work within the framework of these cognitive states; they do not bypass them.?One only has look at history or current events to know this.

Alford (2016, p. 17)

Abstract

Empathy is an overburdened concept in psychoanalysis, having been applied as the foundation of many of our interventions.?In spite of the voluminous literature on this topic, psychoanalysis has not embraced the social science research pointing to the challenges in experiencing empathy.?Empathy is often confused with “emotional contagion,” the assumption being that we automatically feel what our patients feel.?This is not accurate, and even when we share their emotional experience, we are just as likely to feel personal distress as concern. The experience of personal distress often interferes with empathy, producing a response from the analyst that aims to dilute intense negative emotions. This chapter also reviews the research on mirror neurons and empathy, noting how this research has been misapplied in analytic treatment.?Included is a critique of the Boston Change Process Study Group, who have made the mirror neuron theory a cornerstone of their approach.

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