Further Reading — Chapter 21: Empathy and Compassion — Seeing Through Other Eyes

Annotated resources for deeper exploration. Items marked with ★ are especially recommended as starting points.

Foundational Research

★ Bloom, P. (2016). Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. Ecco. The most important counterintuitive argument in this area — and one that should be taken seriously rather than dismissed. Bloom's case that affective empathy is a biased, conflict-intensifying, and unsustainable moral guide is well-sourced and challenging. His alternative, rational compassion, is not the enemy of caring but a more sustainable and less biased form of it. Essential for anyone who has treated "more empathy" as unconditionally good.

★ Neff, K. (2011). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. William Morrow. The foundational popular account of Neff's self-compassion research — accessible, well-sourced, and directly practical. Covers the three components, the research evidence, and the specific practices for developing each component. The self-compassion field has grown substantially since this book was published, but it remains the best entry point. Widely applicable to anyone who is systematically kinder to others than to themselves.

Singer, T., & Klimecki, O. M. (2014). Empathy and compassion. Current Biology, 24(18), R875–R878. Singer and Klimecki's paper presenting the research distinguishing empathy training from compassion training — the finding that compassion training reduces empathic distress while increasing empathic concern. Freely available online. Brief and directly relevant to anyone in or considering a helping profession.

On Empathy: Research and Theory

Decety, J., & Ickes, W. (Eds.). (2009). The Social Neuroscience of Empathy. MIT Press. The comprehensive academic treatment of empathy's neural, evolutionary, and developmental bases. Technical but authoritative — covers the mirror neuron system, the developmental emergence of empathy, individual differences, and clinical implications. For those who want the full scientific account.

Batson, C. D. (2009). These Things Called Empathy: Eight Related but Distinct Phenomena. In J. Decety & W. Ickes (Eds.), The Social Neuroscience of Empathy. Batson's important paper identifying eight distinct phenomena that the word "empathy" is used to describe — one of the clearest demonstrations of why terminological precision matters in this area. Available through the Decety and Ickes volume or through academic databases.

★ Brown, B. (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection. Hazelden. Brown's research on vulnerability and wholehearted living — the foundation of her account of empathy, connection, and the courage to be truly present to others. Accessible, practically oriented, and grounded in qualitative research. The vulnerability paradox and the distinction between empathy and sympathy are described here in accessible form.

On Compassion and Compassion Fatigue

★ Figley, C. R. (Ed.). (2002). Treating Compassion Fatigue. Brunner-Routledge. Figley's foundational clinical collection on compassion fatigue — includes the conceptual framework, assessment tools, and treatment approaches. Essential for those in helping professions; also relevant to anyone in sustained caregiving roles. More clinical in orientation than other items on this list.

van Dernoot Lipsky, L., with Burk, C. (2009). Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others. Berrett-Koehler. A compassionate and practical guide to the sustainable practice of caring — written for professionals who work with trauma but applicable more broadly. Covers the signs and costs of secondary traumatic stress and the practices that support sustainable engagement. Warm in tone and directly actionable.

Neff, K., & Germer, C. (2018). The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive. Guilford. The practical workbook version of Neff's self-compassion research, co-developed with mindfulness researcher Chris Germer. Includes exercises for developing all three components of self-compassion and addresses specific applications (dealing with failure, difficult emotions, relationship challenges). More practical than the foundational Self-Compassion book; recommended if you want specific practices.

On Compassion Meditation

Davidson, R. J., & Begley, S. (2012). The Emotional Life of Your Brain. Hudson Street Press. Davidson's account of affective neuroscience and the plasticity of emotional life — including the research on contemplative practices and their effects on the brain. Accessible and scientifically grounded. The compassion meditation findings are presented in the context of a broader framework of emotional style and its neural basis.

Salzberg, S. (1995). Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Shambhala. The foundational accessible guide to metta (loving-kindness/compassion) meditation — the practice documented in Singer's and Davidson's research as producing increases in empathic concern. Salzberg is a meditation teacher whose presentation is both technically sound and highly readable. No prior meditation experience required.

On Empathy Across Difference

Goleman, D. (2006). Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam. Goleman's account of the neuroscience and psychology of social intelligence — including the empathy circuits, the social brain, and the research on emotional contagion and attunement. More accessible than the academic literature and more nuanced than his earlier Emotional Intelligence. Covers the empathy-across-difference question as part of a broader account of social cognition.

★ Chugh, D. (2018). The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias. HarperBusiness. Chugh's practical account of unconscious bias and the gap between who we mean to be and what we actually do. Directly relevant to the empathy-across-difference material — particularly the projection problem (assuming others' experiences are like ours would be) and the epistemic humility required for genuine perspective-taking across identity differences. Well-sourced and actionable.

Accessible General Reading

Krznaric, R. (2014). Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It. TarcherPerigee. A readable, broad account of empathy — covering its history, psychology, and applications in personal, professional, and civic life. Useful as an overview; the practical exercises are concrete and varied. Less scientifically precise than the research-focused titles but more accessible.

Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. Random House. Brown's most comprehensive treatment of the specific vocabulary of human emotional experience — distinguishing empathy from related experiences (sympathy, pity, compassion, and others) with precision and illustration. Useful for developing the emotional vocabulary that precise empathic communication requires.