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Empathy and Understanding: In History, Psychotherapy, and Our Contemporary World - Thomas Kohut, PhD (Recorded)
This forum uses Thomas Kohut’s recent book, Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past (Routledge, 2020), as a springboard for an interdisciplinary discussion of empathy and its role in understanding people in the past and in the present.
In addition to considering some of the central claims Kohut makes in his book about empathy as a way of knowing in history, the four discussants consider the similarities and differences between the role of empathy in knowing and understanding people in history, and in the humanities more generally, and in knowing and understanding people in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. Finally, the discussants consider the prominent role that empathy has come to play in contemporary political and cultural discourse. The forum is of interest to historians and other scholars in the humanities and social sciences who seek to know and understand human beings, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and those with an interest in the place of empathy in our contemporary world.
Discussants include:
Irene Kacandes, PhD
Dartmouth Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College
Anna Fishzon, PhD
Licensed Psychoanalyst, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR)
References
Kohut, T. A. (2020). Empathy and the historical understanding of the human past. Routledge.
Kohut, T. A. (2020). History Flows Through Us: Psychoanalysis, Historical Trauma, and the Shaping of Experience. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15(1), 20-24.
Leuzinger-Bohleber, M. (2017). Embodied empathy–Clinical and developmental perspectives in psychoanalysis. In Empathy (pp. 49-91). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Frie, R. (2018). Psychoanalysis and history at the crossroads. History flows through us: Germany, the Holocaust and the importance of empathy, 157-187.
McKay, R. K. (2019). Bread and Roses: Empathy and Recognition. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 29(1), 75-91.
Jane G. Tillman, PhD
Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research, Austen Riggs Center
Target Audience
This webinar is designed for mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses.
Learning Objectives
- Participants will be able to define the concept of empathy
- Participants will recognize that empathy is a way of understanding the human past in the field of history
- Participants will be able to describe the use of empathy for historical research purposes
- Participants will be able to critique methods of inquiry that exclude empathy as a way of knowing
Thomas A. Kohut received a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is also a graduate of the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute. He is currently Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Professor of History at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Kohut is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and of the Council of Scholars at the Erik Erikson Institute at Austen Riggs. He is also the president of the Freud Foundation, US. From 2000 to 2006, Kohut served as Dean of the Faculty at Williams College. Kohut has written three books: Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past (New York: Routledge, 2020); A German Generation: An Experiential History of the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press; 2012); Wilhelm II and the Germans: A Study in Leadership (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). He has also published articles on a number of historical and psychological topics: including the German humorist, Wilhelm Busch; letters from German soldiers at Stalingrad; and psychohistory, history, and psychoanalysis.
Discussants include:
Irene Kacandes, PhD
Dartmouth Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College
Anna Fishzon, PhD
Licensed Psychoanalyst, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR)
Jane G. Tillman, PhD
Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research, Austen Riggs Center
Austen Riggs Center Inc. adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. All relevant financial relationships are mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity. All those at Austen Riggs Center involved in the planning of this activity, including the presenter(s) listed above, report they have no relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company*.
The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Austen Riggs Center.
* An ineligible company is any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Credit Designation Statement - The Austen Riggs Center designates this online education course for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category1 Credit(s) ™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Accreditation Statement - The Austen Riggs Center Inc. is accredited by the Massachusetts Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Austen Riggs Center’s policy on disclosure, in keeping with requirements of the Massachusetts Medical Society, requires continuing education planners and speakers to disclose any relevant financial interest or other relationship with commercial entities that could pose a potential conflict of interest in the presentation of this educational activity. The Austen Riggs Center Continuing Medical Education Committee has established policies for identifying and resolving all conflicts of interest prior to this educational activity. The Austen Riggs Center accepts no commercial support of any kind to support our CME/CE activity.
The Austen Riggs Center also designates this online education course for 1.00 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
The Austen Riggs Center is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for the program and its content.
The Austen Riggs Center, #1344, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider Approval Period: 02/02/2023-2/2/2026. Social workers completing this online education course will receive 1.00 continuing education credits.
For a listing of jurisdictions that accept ACE, please visit www.aswb.org/ace/ace-jurisdiction-map/.
This live interactive webinar meets the requirements of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing at 244 CMR 5.00 for 1 contact hours.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
ACCME - As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.00 APA
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for 1.00 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
- 1.00 ASWB-ACE
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organization, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this. Social workers completing this Enduring course will receive 1.00 continuing education credit(s).
- 1.00 Contact Hours/ ParticipationA certificate of attendance for all Learners.