Empathy with Strangers: Personal Reflections

Abstract

Abstract This essay explores my reactions to evident suffering in strangers. How are they (partially) a product of many years of personal and professional experiences of witnessing pain? What are some results of defensively avoiding registering these moments? In addition to my own reflections, I call upon statements by some well-known poets, including Sherman Alexie, W. H. Auden, Emily Dickinson, and Rainer Marie Rilke. The interpersonal analytic writings of H. S. Sullivan offer one description of the process of defensive avoidance. More generally, when my “mind’s eye” looks away, it might be imitating my reluctance to stare at sufferers on the visual plane. While this may offer me some protection, how does it limit my capacity for empathy?