In Toxic Empathy, Allie Beth Stuckey argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation by left-wing activists who bully people into believing that they must adopt progressive positions to be loving. She explores the five most heated issues through which toxic empathy is deployed: abortion, gender, sexuality, immigration, and social justice.

Progressives use catchy mantras to present their perspective as empathetic, like “abortion is healthcare,” “love is love,” or “no human being is illegal,” but in each case, they ignore the other side of the moral equation. For example, abortion is presented as compassionate for the woman, but what about the human life the procedure kills?

Allie Beth Stuckey's new book "Toxic Empathy" argues that while empathy can be beneficial, it becomes dangerous when it blinds individuals to moral truths and is manipulated to justify harmful actions.

Listen to Sam Harris and the Waking Up Podcast on : https://soundcloud.com/samharrisorg

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by Anita Nowak,

In hindsight, Arthur points to his dad’s intervention as the moment that ignited his curiosity about empathic listening. He believes his dad slowed down to listen carefully with an open mind, gave Mr. Martin the benefit of the doubt, but ultimately was not persuaded by his arguments or advanced degrees.

Since then Arthur has become a prolific author. Here are three of his titles:

• The Power of Empathy describes how to apply psychological principles to improve relationships and reduce prejudices.
  
  
• The Stress Solution: How Using Empathy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Decreases Anxiety and Increases Resilience offers techniques to use empathy and cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce anxiety.
  
  

• The Soulful Leader: Success with Authenticity, Integrity, and Empathy provides practical examples for leaders to help them optimize their employees’ potential.

by Maria Ross

In today’s episode, Part 2, A Gameplan for Putting Empathy into Action, Rae Shanahan and I focus on why empathy is hard to achieve when everyone thinks it’s a good idea. We give examples of empathetic leadership – and behaviors that are the opposite of empathy. We dive into a study theme of accountability and the false belief that empathy and accountability are opposites

. Rae shares what empathetic culture does for your organization, and gives examples of what employees deem to be empathetic company benefits. Finally, we revisit the three pillars Businesssolver discovered in their research and how to take action on each one.

by Jonathan Gordon
For those readers that are in Santa Barbara we hare having a in person two day training at our Las Canoas Road campus on November 2nd & 3rd, 2024. Please visit our website for registration information:
https://www.bestempathytraining.com/

The interfaith leadership conference was conducted as part of the Empathy Center’s out reach program to attract local Santa Barbara organizations to use the campus to host their events.

I’m pleased to announce that the Empathy Center has just received its “not for profit status” and this will be used to solicit donations from foundations so that the Empathy Center can continue to offer its programs for free.  Currently both our in person training and online training are free, and have been running on voluntary donations from the participants, but it is costing a small fortune to maintain and repair the campus.

Empathetic leadership
Being an empathetic leader means understanding the experience of one’s team. An ability to connect with employees on a human level has proven to have a significant positive impact on team dynamics, organizational culture and ultimately on positive business outcomes.

Studies show that empathetic leadership enhances employee engagement and increases employee satisfaction, both of which lead to increased productivity. A survey conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership found that leaders who engage with empathy tend to have employees who are more committed to their work. To me, this makes perfect sense; people want to feel understood, valued, seen and supported, especially in high-pressure environments.

Empathy and insight
CEOs who lead from the inside out, on the other hand, and who systematically cultivate personal growth, are equipped to lead with empathy and insight.

The result is a better, more responsive company, characterized by decentralized decision-making and innovation at all levels. And this has a direct relationship to performance: companies with excellent organizational health deliver three times the total shareholder returns of those in poor health.

In this piece, Roshan shares the valuable lessons she learned about embracing empathy as a future doctor. Her essay on this experience was first published in in-Training, an online platform created by and for medical students. The piece was also published as part of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine's Student Voices series. 

During my family medicine clerkship, I worked with a free mobile primary care clinic dedicated to serving uninsured patients. Parked outside a church in a large city, the clinic, which is part of FIU's NeighborhoodHELP program, was a large blue bus standing in stark contrast to the gray asphalt parking lot around it. It was often surrounded by families and people of all ages. The same parking lot hosted a food bank every other week, too. Here was a hub of essential services for the community.

The findings could help teach psychopaths how to consider the thoughts and feelings of those around them.

Psychopaths need some motivation to empathise with other people, something the rest of us do automatically.

That is because there is a paradox at the heart of the psychopath.

On the one hand, psychopaths display a callous disregard for other people’s feelings — as though they don’t care about them.

by Jonathan Gordon

The weekend of 9/21/2024 was busy for the Santa Barbara Empathy Center.  Saturday was the unveiling of the sand mandala created by five traveling monks from the  Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Village Saboo in India.  And in the same space as the sand mandala was being displayed the Empathy Center held an interfaith leadership conference.

Sunday the monks participated in an empathy circle and the sand mandala was ritualistically destroyed.  An the public was invited to watch the release in the nearby ocean.

It’s well-recognised that empathy is a vital trait for successful relationships. What’s little known is what it can do for our leadership, and that’s supercharge it.

Whether in the Flight Deck or the office, showing true empathy for your ‘crew’ will pay off enormously when the unexpected emergency arises – and we really need them then – and make the good times even better. It’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt in 44 years of flying.

For leaders, genuine empathy is much more than understanding, or placing ourselves in someone else’s position. A leader with empathy has something much more powerful than power itself, and that’s influence. But it can all be undone if our staff realise it’s not real. In fact, if we’re not genuine, we can do more harm than good…

: I think that empathy can be a powerful tool to love those around you. I use an example in the book of before I had kids, when I would go on a flight and I would hear babies crying. You're like why do parents do this? This is just bothering me, all about me. And then after I had kids, I'm like, what can I do? What can I carry? Can I help you? Because no one wants this baby to stop crying and screaming more than you do.

“It’s crude. Have you no empathy, man, for the suffering of other people? Have you know sense of purpose if you purport to be a leader? To understand that being a leader means lifting people up in a time of need and not manipulating them?” Harris said during an interview on Wednesday night on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

Prof Howick, director of the University of Leicester's Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, is delivering the programme.

He said: "We are all aware of the challenges in maternity services.

"Empathy, in general, is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling literally.

"In healthcare though, it is a bit different. It involves understanding a patient, demonstrating understanding, and then helpful action and the helpful action is key.

"Active listening is vital to understanding."

Prof Howick added enhancing empathy improved patient outcomes.

Empathy, on the other hand, is the willingness to be genuinely interested in someone else’s life from their perspective; to set aside one’s assumptions and listen; to read and appreciate previous research. It’s difficult to teach, and it’s been more challenging these last few years with students who sometimes want less research, more creating.

We still hope it’s a lesson that sticks because empathy is something they need in their classes later. They cannot launch into often expensive projects without first deeply understanding people, their contexts, and their problems. They cannot go into a film, advertising, PR, or journalism career thinking that they have all the answers, with no questions left to ask.

There is a persistent stereotype that people with autism are individuals who lack empathy and cannot understand emotion. It’s true that many people with autism don’t show emotion in ways that people without the condition would recognize1.

But the notion that people with autism generally lack empathy and cannot recognize feelings is wrong. Holding such a view can distort our perception of these individuals and possibly delay effective treatments.

We became skeptical of this notion several years ago. In the course of our studies of social and emotional skills, some of our research volunteers with autism and their families mentioned to us that people with autism do display empathy.

Empathy Health Technologies founder and CEO Chris Thompson said: “Relapse, overdoses, and suicides typically do not happen in clinics or therapy sessions, they happen when people are alone in their darkest moments.

“Sober Sidekick exists to be a light in their darkest moments as they overcome generational curses to create their epic comeback stories of recovery.”

In addition, the company has successfully closed two pilot programmes with an international insurance provider.

This takes the idea of “feeling your feelings” in a whole new direction.

You know what empathy feels like. Now imagine that dialed up to the max. That’s how empaths feel. They’re like mind readers: They feel other people’s feelings and take them on as their own, sometimes to an unhealthy degree (so much so that it’s sometimes called “hyperempathy”). On the less extreme end of the spectrum, being an empath means you’re a great listener and often incredibly caring. Think about a friend who always, always understands what you’re going through, or your aunt who always seems to know when something’s wrong.

Conclusion
Balint groups are effective for empathy training among doctors, nurses, and medical students. Future research should incorporate patient-led measurements to evaluate empathy and ascertain the long-term impact of Balint groups on empathy training

The significance of empathy and the ability to understand those who differ from us, captures global conversation, prompting discussions on its role in politics and business beyond.

Empathy, a fundamental trait of effective leadership, is essential in today’s dynamic landscape and, as we face a new era ahead, it is arguably the most critical skill for rallying a nation behind a new chapter.