Self-Empathy as a Necessary Element for Regulation of Emotions

Abstract

The need to care about each other, identifying ourselves with what we have in common, as living beings, human beings on this planet, is currently becoming a focus in studies and reflections among researchers in neuroscience, behaviour, emotions and social relationships, to name a few. In the area of health promotion and psychotherapy, it is no different. Particularly in the last two decades, the expansion of knowledge about the brain and nervous system in neuroscience research has provided information to relate these areas to understanding of the individual and their relationships, contributing to reflections, understanding and proposals for action and possible release from human suffering. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative article is to reflect, based on a Narrative Review of recent literature, on the possibility of understanding empathy as originating from primary or natural emotion. In conclusion, the importance of regulating emotions becomes evident, considering self-empathy so that its function of regulating our instincts with the purpose of survival, well-being and evolution, can happen, in the individual and social fields. This paper appeared originally in Portuguese as. Autoempatia Como Elemento Necessário Para Regulação Das Emoções. Revista Brasileira de Análise Transacional, 2021 and is reproduced here by kind permission of UNAT-BRASIL - União Nacional de Analistas Transacionais – Brasil (https://unat.org.br/portal/rebat-2021.php)