This article discusses the term ‘empathy’. By means of a literature review we explore what empathy is, how we acquire the capacity for empathy, how this may become flawed and if this may be remedied, and how empathy may slow down behavior that threatens to cross a border, for example in a forensic psychiatric patient. This exploration ventures beyond the forensic field. It is concluded that our capacity for empathy is innate, and that we do not require cognitive skills to express this. However, it may develop further into more refined forms that do need cognitive skills. Empathy is a feeling, and the development of empathy is part of the development in that realm. Defects in empathic capacity are therefore the result of a defective or disturbed emotional development. These defects cannot be cured by a skills training, but require psychotherapy. This therapy should follow the same process that, ideally, is normally followed in the development of our empathic capacities. It might be useful, though, to follow up with a skills training that focuses on the appropriate application of those capacities.
empathy, empathy training, client-centered psychotherapy, forensic psychiatry
The tPeP (Journal Person-centered experiential Psychotherapy) is the scientific journal for Dutch and Flemish psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, that work from, or are interested in a client-centered perspective.
