Abstract

This dissertation examines the construct of psychotherapeutic empathy from the viewpoint of hermeneutic thought. The psychological construct of empathy arises from the assumption of a subject/object distinction. It names the process by which one subject is said to have knowledge of the thoughts and feelings of another subject and to know these thoughts and feelings from the other subject's point of view. The ontologically based writings of Martin Heidegger discuss the origins of human consciousness before there is a division into subject and object. The implications of a non-subject oriented approach to research has been further elaborated in the tradition of ontological hermeneutics by Gadamer and Ricoeur. This hermeneutic tradition was used both to design the research process and to analyze the data. ;Conversations with practicing psychotherapists are interpreted from the point of view of three characteristics attributed to empathy by Carl Rogers. These characteristics are: entering another's world, laying aside views and values, and accurate empathy. Gadamer's concept of the "fusion of horizons" is discussed as a model for a hermeneutically based understanding of certain discrepancies between Rogers' description and the psychotherapist's described experience and understanding of empathy. ;As a product of the hermeneutic research, a new definition of the construct of empathy is proposed. The practice of psychotherapeutic empathy is seen to be the activity of two people mutually engaging in a process of self-understanding. In this activity, current understandings of the characteristics of self and other are put at risk through dialogue. Therapist and client wholeheartedly engage in the attempt to mutually understand the world they are currently experiencing together. It is the mutual engagement in the process of understanding, rather than particular insights that result when understanding is reached, that produces the healing effects that led Carl Rogers to emphasize the practice of empathy as a core condition of psychotherapy. ;Possible modes of research that might result from this definition and implications for the clinical practice of psychotherapeutic empathy are proposed