공감과 마음이해 = 종합적 접근

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The authors attempted to present a comprehensive process model of empathy in the article. Existing theoretical approaches, unfortunately, have resulted in many unnecessary confusions rather than provided a clear and integrative understanding of empathy. Empathy plays an essential role whenever and wherever there exists a wish for oneness among isolated and lonely individuals. Therefore, empathy, as the only means of connecting individuals each other, is an prerequisite function of human beings. As such, understanding of empathy can not be restrained into one or two specific and particular theoretical contexts, because it is a pan-theoretical and universal human phenomenon which must be viewed from comprehensive point of view. There needs a new abstraction of empathy - conceptualizing it as a process of understanding of mind - to overcome limitations and confusions which resulted from theoretical biases. The comprehensive process model of empathy, presented in the article, consists of three precesses of taking-in, contacting and returning with empathic stance as the preceding condition. The model is based on the view that empathy manifests itself wherever, beyond therapeutic situations, a mind tries to understand other minds.