Empathy in the Contemporary Social Context

Abstract

Empathy is a basic component of interpersonal relationships, a complex cognitive-affective phenomenon of experiencing and understanding the conscious and unconscious states of others. The Shadow is one of the fundamental concepts of analytical psychology, crucial for defining a person's identity as well as for establishing and maintaining relationships with others. Besides the personal, we can speak of the group and collective Shadow. Understanding and integrating the contents of the group and collective Shadow can serve as indicators of qualitative and value shifts in certain social systems. The post-Jungian paradigm examines the contemporary social context, viewing the “psyche” or “soul” as something that exists “in and among people”, while considering the analyst's practice as a “revolutionary cell”, an instrument of change not only for the individual but also for the world which we live in. The postmodern discourse of contemporary society promotes and validates individuality, efficiency, achievement, acquisition, external appearance and narcissism. We live in a polarized, alienated, binary reality, in a culture that values extroversion, where the space for the liminal, processual, and transcendental is narrowing, and instead of fostering integration and dialogue, we increasingly experience fragmentation. This collective Persona implies that community, civility, care for the ecosystem, and empathy are all elements of the collective Shadow. In this paper, we will examine the concept of the Self of collectivity, various clinical as well as contextual examples of the manifestations of these contents, and the possibilities of establishing a dialogue with them.