Scientific work and life of Edith Stein - psychological assumptions of empathy in the light of the problem of ecumenism

Barbara Mróz

Uniwersytet Opolski, Instytut Psychologii
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0414-0468

Abstract

The article is an attempt to analyze the manifestations of empathy in Edith Stein's scientific work and life, and it draws attention to the psychological role of empathy in the development of personality. It is worth emphasizing the importance of both the very figure of Husserl's outstanding student and the ecumenical significance of her work. The concept of "empathy" appeared in the first decades of the 20th century and the basis for the analysis of this phenomenon was philosophical (phenomenological) deliberations on the problem of cognition of other people's psychic states. One of the first psychologists to draw on the achievements of phenomenologists and apply the term Die Einfühlung was Theodor Lipps. In the Anglo-Saxon literature this term was translated as "empathy" or "sharing feelings with...". In psychotherapy today, important findings in the field of empathy were made by a Rogers and Batson, in Poland Rembowski. The article presents fragments of Edith Stein's selected writings, letters and statements, which bear testimony to her interest in the problem of empathy both in her scientific work and in her personal life. The factual material presented and its analysis is additionally based on the Personality and Axiological Model by Mróz, which focuses on the dimensions of competence, social relations and autonomy. Stein's biographical facts and statements on empathy are presented with emphasis on the relations and dependencies between the scholar's psychobiography and the dimensions of the MOA and references to the issues of ecumenism.

Parole chiave:

Edith Stein, empathy, ecumenism, Personality and Axiological Model, development