A Relational Frame Theory Account of Empathy (Report‪)‬

The term empathy comes from the Greek "empatheia" which is a composite of the words "en" and "pathos", and translates into "being in some sort of suffering, feeling or emotion". This term was incorporated to western culture by the Germans at the beginning of the 20th century in the context of theories of art appreciation, and it became used in psychology by Titchener as a form of pespective-taking that referred to the psychological process of objectively perceiving another person's situation. The current literature on empathy has evolved after that original conceptualization. As discussed by Batson (1991, p. 87), although Titchener originally conceptualized empathy in its cognitive dimension, research during the 60s and 70s emphasized its emotional side, with perspective-taking as a precursor of that ability. Empathy as a result came to have an important emotional component and it was defined as a set of congruent vicarious emotions that were other-oriented and barely distinguishable from pity, compassion and tenderness.