TY - BOOK ID - 78678835 TI - The dark sides of empathy AU - Breithaupt, Fritz AU - Hamilton, Andrew B. B. PY - 2019 SN - 1501735608 9781501735608 9781501735615 1501735616 9781501721649 150172164X PB - Ithaca ; London : Cornell University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Interpersonal relations. KW - Social interaction. KW - Empathy. KW - Human relations KW - Interpersonal relationships KW - Personal relations KW - Relations, Interpersonal KW - Relationships, Interpersonal KW - Social behavior KW - Social psychology KW - Object relations (Psychoanalysis) KW - Attitude (Psychology) KW - Caring KW - Emotions KW - Sympathy KW - Human interaction KW - Interaction, Social KW - Symbolic interaction KW - Exchange theory (Sociology) KW - Psychology KW - PSYCHOLOGY / Emotions. KW - PSYCHOLOGY / Physiological Psychology. KW - German philosophy. KW - conflict. KW - desire to increase empathy. KW - development of empathy. KW - exploitation. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78678835 AB - Many consider empathy to be the basis of moral action. However, the ability to empathize with others is also a prerequisite for deliberate acts of humiliation and cruelty. In The Dark Sides of Empathy, Fritz Breithaupt contends that people often commit atrocities not out of a failure of empathy but rather as a direct consequence of over-identification and a desire to increase empathy. Even well-meaning compassion can have many unintended consequences, such as intensifying conflicts or exploiting others. Empathy plays a central part in a variety of highly problematic behaviors. From mere callousness to terrorism, exploitation to sadism, and emotional vampirism to stalking, empathy all too often motivates and promotes malicious acts. After tracing the development of empathy as an idea in German philosophy, Breithaupt looks at a wide-ranging series of case studies-from Stockholm syndrome to Angela Merkel's refugee policy and from novels of the romantic era to helicopter parents and murderous cheerleader moms-to uncover how narcissism, sadism, and dangerous celebrity obsessions alike find their roots in the quality that, arguably, most makes us human. ER -