Empathy and systemic psychotherapy. Theoretical and clinical implications

Journal title PSICOBIETTIVO
Author/s Luigi Onnis
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/2
Language Italian Pages 24 P. 60-83 File size 141 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSOB2015-002004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The Author, after proposing a definition and a brief historical reconstruction of the concept of empathy, takes into account the scientific contribution that draw a great interest about empathy nowadays: those coming from developmental psychology, particularly through the importance of intersubjectivity, and those coming from neurosciences, through the mirror neurons function. It emerges that empathy is a relational construct that involves a shared with an emotional and affective basis (before cognitive) mediated by implicit language, specifically bodily. These relational characteristics of empathy fit perfectly with the systemic-relational psychotherapy which puts the importance of the inter-relationship between its principles and that values its analog languages in their therapeutic work to promote the emotional circulation between therapist and family. A clinical case is described in which the empathic activation among the family members and the therapist is promoted by the use of the analogical method of Family Time Sculptures. In the final part of the paper the risks of an overvaluation of empathy are also discussed, particularly when it is considered as a factor that, by itself, can produce change.

Keywords: Empathy; Intersubjectivity; Mirror Neurons; Systemic Therapy; Implicit Languages; Family Time Sculptures

  1. Gallese V. (2015) “Sé corporei in relazione: simulazione incarnate come prospettiva in seconda persona sull’intersoggettività”, in Onnis L. (a cura di), Una nuova alleanza tra psicoterapia e neuroscienze: dall’intersoggettività ai neuroni specchio. Dialogo tra D. Stern e V. Gallese, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  2. Gallese V., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Rizzolatti G. (1996) “Action recognition in premotor cortex”, Brain, 119: 593-601
  3. Gallese V., Migone P., Eagle M. (2006) “La simulazione incarnata e i neuroni specchio. Le basi neurofisiologiche dell’intersoggettività ed alcune implicazioni per la psicoanalisi”, Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 40, 3: 543-580
  4. Hobson R.P. (2002) The cradle of thought, Pan McMillan, London
  5. Hoffman M.L. (1982) “Development of prosocial motivation: empathy and quilt”, in N. Eisemberg (ed.), The development of prosocial behavior, Academic Press, New York
  6. Kandel E.R. (1999) “Biology and the future of Psychoanalysis: a new intellectual frame work for psychiatry”, American J. of Psychiatry, 156: 505-524
  7. Kohut H. (1971) The analysis of the self, International Unv. Press., New York (trad. it. Narcisismo e analisi del Sé, Boringhieri, Torino, 1976)
  8. Le Doux J. (1998) Il cervello emotivo, Baldini, Castoldi, Milano
  9. Lipps T. (1905) “Das wissen von fremdenichen”, Psychologische Untersuchungen, 4: 694-722
  10. Meltzoff A.N., Moore M.K. (1977) “Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates”, Sciences, 198: 75-78
  11. Meltzoff A.N., Moore M.K. (1999) “Persons and representations: why infant imitation is important for theories of human development”, in Nadel J., Butterworth G. (eds.), Imitation in infancy, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge
  12. Onnis L. (2004) Il tempo sospeso, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  13. Onnis L. (2009) “Se la psiche è il riflesso del corpo: una nuova alleanza tra neuroscienze e psicoterapia”, Psicobiettivo, 2: 51-73
  14. Onnis L. (2012) “Le voci interne della famiglia: Miti e fantasmi familiari”, in Onnis L. (a cura di), La terapia familiare in Europa, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  15. Onnis L. (2013) “Le Sculture del Tempo Familiare: un metodo di ‘narrazione analogica’ in psicoterapia sistemica”, Ecologia della mente, 1: 5-27
  16. Onnis L. (2014) “La dimensione dell’intersoggettività nella psicoterapia sistemica relazionale”, Ecologia della mente, 1: 5-15
  17. Onnis L. (a cura di) (2014) Una nuova alleanza tra psicoterapia e neuroscienze: dall’intersoggettività
  18. ai neuroni specchio. Dialogo tra D. Sterne V. Gallese, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  19. Onnis L., Di Gennaro A., Cespa G., Agostini B., Chouhy A., Dentale R.C.,
  20. Quinzi P. (1980) “Le sculture del presente e del futuro: un modello di lavoro terapeutico nelle situazioni psicosomatiche”, Ecologia della mente, 1: 21-48
  21. Onnis L., Di Gennaro A., Cespa G., Agostini B., Chouhy A., Dentale R.C.,
  22. Quinzi P. (1980) “Sculpting present and future: a systemic intervention model applied to psychosomatic families”, Family Process, 33, 3: 341-355
  23. Onnis L., Laurent M., Bendetti P., Cespa G., Di Gennaro A., Cespa G.,
  24. Dentale R.C., Quinzi P. (1980) “Il mito familiare. Concetti teorici e implicazioni terapeutiche”, Ecologia della mente, 2: 95-112
  25. Rizzolatti G., Fadiga L., Gallese V., Fogassi L. (1996) “Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions”, Cognitive Brain Research, 9: 131-141
  26. Rizzolatti G., Sinigaglia C. (2006) So quel che fai: il cervello che agisce e i neuroni specchio, Raffaello Cortina, Milano
  27. Rogers C. (1975) “Empathic. An unappreciated way of being”, The counseling psychologist, 2: 2-10
  28. Sander L.W. (1975) “Infant and caretaking environment. Investigation andconceptualization of adaptive behavior in a system of increasing complexity”, in Anthony E.J. (ed.), Exploration in Child Psychiatry, Plenum, New York
  29. Siegel D.J. (2009) La mente relazionale, Raffaello Cortina, Milano
  30. Stern D.N. (1985) Il mondo interpersonale del bambino, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino
  31. Stern D.N. (2005) Il momento presente, Raffaello Cortina, Milano
  32. Stern D.N. (2006) “L’implicito e l’esplicito in psicoterapia”, in M. Spagnuolo-Lobb (a cura di), Atti del Convegno della Federazione Italiana Associazioni di Psicoterapia (FIAP), FrancoAngeli, Milano
  33. Stern D.N., Hefer L., Haff W., Dore J. (1984) La “sintonizzazione affettiva” (trad. it. in Le interazioni madre-bambino nello sviluppo e nella clinica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 1998)
  34. Stern D.N., Sander L.W., Nehum J.P., Harrison A.M., Lyons Ruth K., Morgan A.C., Brushweiler Stern N., Tronick E. (1998) “Non interpretive mechanism in psychoanalytic therapy: the ‘something more’, than interpretation”, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79: 903-918 (trad. it. in L. Onnis (a cura di), Una nuova alleanza tra psicoterapia e neuroscienze. Dialogo tra D. Stern e V. Gallese, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  35. Strayer J. (1987) “Affective and cognitive perspective on empathy”, in Eisemberg F., Strayer (eds.), Empathy and its development, Cambridge Univ. Press, New York
  36. Titchener E. (1909) Experimental psychology of the thought processes, McMillan, New York
  37. Trevarthen C. (1980) “The foundation of intersubjectivity. Development of interpersonal and cooperative understanding in infants”, in Olson D. (ed.), The social foundation of Language and thought, Norton, New York
  38. Trevarthen C. (1993) “Il sé generale dell’intersoggettività, la psicologia della comunicazione infantile”, in Neisser U. (ed.), La percezione di Sé: le fonti ecologiche interpersonali della conoscenza di sé, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 1999
  39. Tronick E.Z., Als H., Brazelton T.B. (1977) “The infant capacity to regulate mutually in face to face interaction”, Journal of Communication, 27: 74, 80
  40. Baron-Cohen S. (1995) L’autismo e la lettura della mente (trad. it. Astrolabio, Roma, 1997)-702 Bateson G. (1976) Verso un’ecologia della mente, Adelphi, Milano
  41. Bonino S., Lo Coco A., Tani F. (1998) Empatia. I processi di condivisione delle emozioni, Giunti, Firenze
  42. Borke H. (1971) “Interpersonal perception of young children: egocentrism or empathy?”, Developmental Psychology, 5: 263-296
  43. Boszormeny Nagy I., Spark J. (1988) Lealtà invisibili, Astrolabio, Roma
  44. Buber M. (1923-1970) I and you, English translation by W. Kauffman, Touchstone, New York
  45. Ceccarelli M., Pugliatti M., Avallone E., Brescia G., Cimmino M., Valente
  46. M., Farina B. (2013) “L’organizzazione gerarchica dei processi cognitivi: dalle social neurosciences alla pratica clinica”, Psicobiettivo, 2: 107-128
  47. Damasio A. (1995) L’errore di Cartesio, Adelphi, Milano
  48. Damasio A. (2000) Emozioni e coscienza, Adelphi, Milano
  49. Decety J., Jackson P.L. (2004) “The functional architecture of human empathy”, Behavioral Cognitive Neuro Sciences Review, 3: 71-100
  50. Eisenberg N., Strayer J. (1987) Empathy and its development, Cambridge Univ. Press, New York
  51. Elkaim M. (1989) Si tu m’aimes ne m’aimespas, Le Seuil, Paris
  52. Fodor J. (1992) “A theory of the child’s theory of mind”, Cognition, 44: 283-296
  53. Freud S. (1899) L’interpretazione dei sogni, trad. it. Boringhieri, Torino, 1989
  54. Gallese V. (2005) “Embodied simulation: from neurons to phenomenal experience”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Science, 4: 23-48

Luigi Onnis, Empatia e psicoterapia sistemica. Implicazioni teoriche e cliniche in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 2/2015, pp 60-83, DOI: 10.3280/PSOB2015-002004