Origin of empathy

 Empathy comes into the English language as an equivalent for a German word used in art criticism. Empathy, in this regard, is a skill. Someone who had this skill could not just respond emotionally to a work of art but could feel into a work of art.

“Not only do I see gravity and modesty and pride and courtesy and stateliness, but I feel or act them in the mind's muscles. This is, I suppose, a simple case of empathy, if we may coin that term as a rendering of Einfühlung; there is nothing curious or idiosyncratic about it; but it is a fact that must be mentioned.” [Edward Bradford Titchener, "Lectures on the Experimental Psychology of the Thought Processes," 1909] 

Look at the girl in that painting. If it’s not familiar to you, don’t worry about it; in a sense that’s better. Do you see her not just as a representation, a form, but as the presentation of a human being? Can you feel for her?

The point is to not simply respond intellectually but emotionally. 

And not just the persons in a painting. The same room, with no one present, could provoke a response.

The obvious point here is that the painting does not have feelings. That doesn’t invalidate empathy. Speaking only for myself, I like this original notion of empathy more than what it has become. What we need to notice, though, is the difference. This original sense is not a way of connecting with someone else’s plight. 

I can imagine situations where this kind of response would be desirable abut also of situations where it would not. The most jarring example would be psychopathy in surgeons. We think of psychopathy as scary but many psychopaths are harmless. In some cases, surgery, it can be a benefit. So long as the psychopath sees their yearning for high social status and money a desirable outcome, they will do a. Good job and, because they are not terrified of cutting into another human being, they might be better at the job than someone who could be paralyzed by emotion. 

In other cases, empathy would be desirable. I think it’s telling and very important, that the original application as in art criticism. For you can enjoy art with feeling anything into the art.

The thing is, an empathetic response to a work of art is different from simply having an emotional response. If yellow makes me happy, then an abstract painting with a lot of yellow in it will probably make me happy. To feel into is something else and that something else would require an effort of my part. It’s very much an intentional act and that’s not the way people mean empathy when responding to another person.