The Building of Empathy: Conceptual “Pillars” and Conversational Practices in Psychotherapy

Abstract

cite: Michael B. Buchholz, Jörg Bergmann, Marie-Luise Alder, Michael M. Dittmann, Florian Dreyer and Horst Kächele (2017). The Building of Empathy: Conceptual “Pillars” and Conversational Practices in Psychotherapy, Empathy - An Evidence-based Interdisciplinary Perspective, Dr. Makiko Kondo (Ed.), InTech, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69628. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/empathy-an-evidence-based-interdisciplinary-perspective/the-building-of-empathy-conceptual-pillars-and-conversational-practices-in-psychotherapy----------------------------------------------------- Abstract Empathy can be considered a special type of cooperation between therapist and patient. This exploratory study compares psychoanalytical, depth-psychological and behavioural therapy, in each case using transcriptions of audio recordings of initial, mid-term and late sessions. For each school of therapy, five treatments are included, creating a database of 45 sessions. We describe the project and the method of conversation analysis using examples of these transcripts and hypothesise that while all three schools of therapy are faced with common fundamental problems concerning the realisation of empathy, one can observe empathy profiles specific to each school. Here, we introduce theoretical groundwork and the terminology of conversation analysis. The topic may be of particular interest to clinicians, since everyday problems are examined through the prism of microanalysis. Keywords: empathy, psychotherapy, conversation analysis, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural therapy 1. Introduction Empathy is not a binary variable that can be reduced to “yes” or “no”. What one person experiences as a moment of empathy another might not. Hence, empathy cannot be defined a priori or in abstract terms, rather it is something that is created—through conversation.