A Word for "Feeling-Into" the World

Einfühlung • (ein-foo-lung) • noun

Definition: Feeling-into, empathy 

Origin: German

Creating Empathy

In 1873, German philosopher Robert Vischer published his doctoral thesis, On the Optical Sense of Form: A Contribution to Aesthetics, which was the first published usage of the word einfühlung. In his paper, Vischer spoke about the act of “feeling-into” or “in-feeling” an inanimate object such as a piece of art, which rapidly advanced the analysis of having empathy with something considered an “other.” Vischer’s focus on aesthetics articulated the importance of “feeling-into” art, architecture, and man-made creations. Despite the art being an “other,” it is important for it to invoke an emotional connection and for humans to aspire to “feel-into” their surroundings. Einfühlung expressed the importance of creating things imbued with geist, to recognize the geist of your surroundings, and to feel your geist into entities that could be considered an “other.”

Prior to his paper, German speakers had long said “sich einfühlen,” which translates as “to feel-into” or “to empathize,” but the published analysis in addition to common usage elevated its discourse. (Did you know: In German, the suffix “en” denotes a verb, and “ung” a noun. “Aufheben” also has the noun “Aufhebung.”)

The importance of the advanced analysis and understanding of “einfühlung” has had a significant impact on the English language because, in 1909, Edward B. Titchener translated “einfühlung” into the English word “empathy.” Until the 20th century, empathy did not exist in the English language.

Empathy was not a word used by the British as they colonized America and commenced the transatlantic slave trade. Empathy did not exist as colonizers committed genocide against indigenous people. Empathy served no part in the slavery-based society of the American South, and it was nonexistent during the founding of the United States of America. By the start of the 20th century, America had made “separate but equal” and Jim Crow the American norm, so despite empathy emerging in the early 1900s in England, it clearly could not find a home in America. 

Even today as Donald Trump shows a lack of empathy, conservative pundits say that he lacks the “empathy gene” without necessarily labeling this lack as a negative characteristic. America was built without empathy and tragically some Americans still believe we do not need it. A man without empathy rose to the top of our society with the help of his followers who are similarly unempathetic. However, despite reaching the presidency, Trump shows us the sad, weak, and pathetic reality of a life without empathy.

Empathy vs. Sympathy

Once empathy entered into the English lexicon, there has been much discussion over the similarities between empathy and sympathy. Despite much of American society clearly understanding the importance of empathy today, the notion of America’s Founding Fathers being unable to articulate or practice empathy is not a pleasant thought; thus much of the discussion regarding empathy and sympathy aspires to negate empathy and subsume it into sympathy. For example, people often attempt to articulate that sympathy and empathy are essentially the same words, and therefore the prevalence of sympathy in English is supposed to mean that empathy has always existed in English despite the word not existing until the 20th century. This logic is absurd because sympathy and empathy have different relationships with the “other.” 

Sympathy has been a part of the English language from at least the 16th century and British philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith wrote much about it. Linguistically, sympathy derives from the Greek “sym-” meaning “together” and “pathos” meaning “feeling.” Empathy also uses the Greek “em” meaning “in.” 

The obvious distinction between empathy and sympathy is that sympathy does not extend to inanimate objects and only extends to things where you could expect to have a “feeling-together.” Theoretically, sympathy should equitably extend to all people, animals, and plants; but as European philosophy (especially Descartes) distanced man from the earth and European colonization dehumanized non-European people, sympathy became an increasingly tribalistic emotion. Sympathy for the “other” or the earth became impossible, and now empathy needed to serve that purpose. 

When anything outside of yourself or your tribe becomes an "other," empathy becomes a necessity. By reducing a living entity to an “other,” it becomes subjugated and essentially a living mass of nothingness in the eyes and mind of the dehumanizer. If one perceives something as already a nothing that exists to do as you command, then it will become incredibly easy to justify terrorizing, torturing, and killing the “other.” Without empathy, one can gleefully destroy the world and find nothing wrong with the atrocities they perpetuate.

Empathy & George Floyd

As peaceful protests spread across America and the world following the murder of George Floyd, I cannot help but see this movement as an emergence of empathy in this country. American ethnocide depended on turning African people into an “other” that existed beyond the reach of sympathy. If colonizers and slave owners had sympathy for indigenous and African people, they would not have been colonizers and slave owners. Instead of empathy, America has encouraged a culture of sympathizing and empathizing with the lives of white Americans without expecting equal treatment for the “other.” This imbalance has perpetuated the unjust American norm of valuing white lives over non-white lives. The Black Lives Matter movement exists to demonstrate this injustice.

Floyd’s murder appears to be a tipping point. As Americans watched the video of Minnesota police officer Derrick Chauvin casually grinding his knee into Floyd’s neck and taking his life, the act of “feeling-into” Floyd and internalizing his horror became more evident amongst the American public. The empathy that Americans felt for Floyd opened the floodgates, and the barrier between America’s tribalistic, white-dominated sympathy and the need for an equitable, multiracial empathy began to crumble. Non-Black Americans expressed more empathy for their Black friends and co-workers as they recognized the horrors of America’s systemic inequalities. 

The growth of empathy in America presents an opportunity for unprecedented, revolutionary, and transcendent change. Tragically, as Americans, we have always lived in a society without empathy, but now we have the profound opportunity to change our lives and future lives for the better.

This week, try to practice einfühlung and empathy with something previously considered an "other." Einfühlung is not a spontaneous emotion (even though it can be). Einfühlung is a practice we all must cultivate because we know it will make our society a better place. As a young child, einfühlung did not come naturally to me, but what did come naturally was using karate to kick people because I thought it was “fun.” Every time I callously did something that harmed someone, my mom would sit me down and tell me a story that would incline me to “feel-into” the pain that I had caused. This practice helped me stop doing things that I thought were “fun,” and turned me into a much better person.

Right now is the perfect time to use einfühlung to make our society better and to undo the horrible norms that were allowed to thrive in it for centuries.

Please share your thoughts with us via email, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using #TheWord. We will be hosting a Live Q&A session on our Instagram today at 5PM EDT so that we can answer your questions about einfühlung. We hope to see you there.

P.S. 

SCL has teamed up with photographer and SCL community-member Kirth Bobb to sell photos that speak to the transformational time sweeping across America and the world. Below, you’ll see three incredible photographs taken by Kirth, and all the proceeds from the sale of these photos will be generously donated to us in order to continue the work we do. We really appreciate all your love and support for our newsletter and the events we bring. We hope to deliver more community and philosophy-driven content as this year progresses. You can purchase Kirth's photos here.

Kirth’s work particularly resonates with the spirit of our philosophy and the opportunity to “feel-into” his work can help make our society a better place. The last of these three photos is one of my favorites. I look at this photo every day, and that emotional connection always empowers my day. I hope these photos can empower yours too.