Just Imagine How I Feel: How to Improve Empathy Through Training in Imagination

Abstract

Most of us probably spend some part of our day musing about real or imaginary people. In dismissing these activities as ``mere fantasies,'' most research psychologists (e.g., Shrauger and Altrocchi, 1964) have ignored the contention of an insistent few (Horowitz, 1972; Singer, 1966, 1974b) that daydream experiences have adaptive (and demonstrable) implications for the way persons acquire knowledge about other persons. While my own experience as a clinical psychologist and avid daydreamer led me to side with the latter point of view, the scarcity of empirical evidence made it a difficult position to substantiate. Accordingly, I designed a study that proposed to teach individuals to put their fantasies to work in order to increase their empathic abilities. This study---the theoretical considerations from which it developed, its research design and procedures, and the implications of its findings for theory, practice, and further research---is the subject of the present chapter.