Empathy, Grief, and Interpersonal Understanding

This is the third mini-workshop for the DFG/AHRC-funded project ‘How Does It Feel? Interpersonal Understanding and Affective Empathy’. The schedule will be as follows: 9:30am – 11:00am Michael Cholbi (30-45 minute talk, then Q&A) 11:00am – 11:30am Break 11:30am – 1:00pm Lizzy Ventham (30-45 minute talk, then Q&A) Topic: There’s not only something valuable in being able to understand others, but we also find something valuable in being understood. We cherish many personal relationships where we know and understand the people in question for who they are, and we find can often comfort in being known by others. This workshop aims to explore the relationship between this kind of interpersonal understanding – this empathy – with grief. When we experience grief, do we become alienated from others, and struggle to empathise with others? Do those who struggle with empathy also struggle with grief? Do we sometimes grieve in part because we lose someone with whom we shared a certain kind of understanding, and what does that mean for our identity? What is the relationship between grief and the way we understand ourselves as relational to others? The workshop hopes to explore some of these questions, and more.  To register for the workshop, please email Elizabeth.ventham@liverpool.ac.uk