A BRIEF CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF EINFÜHLUNG: 18th-Century Germany to Post-World War II U.S. Psychology

This brief conceptual history, modeled on Koselleck's Begriffsgeschichte, adds to earlier histories of empathy. It showed that Johann Gottfried Herder, not Robert Vischer, invented Einfühlung as an objective scholarly method during 18th-century absolutist-relativist disputes. Original 18th-, 19...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History of psychology 2013-11, Vol.16 (4), p.269-281
Main Author: Edwards, Laura Hyatt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Empathy
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
History of Psychology
Human
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Relativism
War
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Summary:This brief conceptual history, modeled on Koselleck's Begriffsgeschichte, adds to earlier histories of empathy. It showed that Johann Gottfried Herder, not Robert Vischer, invented Einfühlung as an objective scholarly method during 18th-century absolutist-relativist disputes. Original 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century scholarly texts demonstrated that continued attempts to redress these disputes drove many of Einfühlung's conceptual transformations. Empathy first appeared in U.S. scientific psychology as a personal characteristic when relativists sought to redress the absolutist-relativist methodological dispute that began between John Watson and Edward Titchener. The conclusion notes limitations to this Begriffsgeschichte.
ISSN:1093-4510
1939-0610
DOI:10.1037/a0033634