Empathy and Historical Understanding

Sponsor(s): Institute of European Studies, German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley, Center for German and European Studies, History Department, German Department 

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In his talk, Kohut will consider what empathy is, thinking and feeling one’s way into the experience of the other and what empathy is not, merger, identification, and above all sympathy. Empathy, for Kohut, always involves an awareness of the difference between the empathizing self and the empathized other. Since empathy is decidedly not sympathy, we can and must empathize with people whom we find decidedly unsympathetic, with Nazis for example. Kohut will demonstrate that history written from an empathic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the historical subject, is different from history written from the perspective of the observing historian. To illustrate this difference, Kohut will consider the notorious Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, a key moment in the Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe. He will conclude by emphasizing that historians and others seeking to know and understand human beings be self-aware and self-reflective in their use of empathy.

A historian with psychoanalytic training, Thomas Kohut is the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Professor of History Emeritus at Williams College. From 2000 to 2006, Kohut served as dean of the faculty at Williams. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center for nearly twenty years and is currently a member of the Council of Scholars which advises the Erikson Institute at Riggs. Kohut is also president of the board of the Freud Foundation US, which supports the work of the Freud Museum in Vienna. Kohut is the author of three books, most recently, Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past. He has also published articles on a number of historical and psychological topics, including on the German humorist, Wilhelm Busch, on letters from German soldiers at the battle of Stalingrad, and on psychoanalysis and history.

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Ray Savord at rsavord@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-4555 with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event.