Empathy at work

Gee, M, Soyinka, B, Lee, A, Geen, E and Al Khayatt, O (2017) Empathy at work. In: Professorial Lecture Series 2016-17, 1 February 2017, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK.

Abstract

How does empathy help us to write and to work? Professor Maggie Gee chairs a panel discussion by members of the CoLA cross-disciplinary 'Empathy and Writing' group. In October 2013 a seminal paper in Science by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano reported experiments showing that reading fiction increased 'Theory of Mind' - the ability to understand the world from another person's different point of view, which we might also call empathy. The German origin word 'einfühlung', translated as 'feeling into', sounds very like what happened when a novelist, playwright or screenwriter invents a character, or when a medical doctor hears, and tries to make sense of, a patient's story. How do different professions use empathy? How does it help, and are there limits to its usefulness? Professor Bambo Soyinka talks about empathy in scriptwriting and interactive narrative, neuroscientist Dr Alison Lee talks about empathy and the brain, novelist Emma Geen talks about the origins of empathy in aesthetic theory, and neurologist and writer Dr Omar Al Khayatt talks about the uses and limitations of empathy in medicine.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Divisions: Chancelry and Research Management
Date Deposited: 14 Feb 2017 14:24
Last Modified: 17 May 2022 15:13
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/8964
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