A Rumor of Empathy

Top ten trends in empathy for 2026 including automated (AI) empathy, suicidal empathy (say what!?), rhetorical empathy, empathy and reading and more! For example: The trend of bringing large language models to empathy and empathic relatedness is a game changer. Can AI tell the difference between empathy and stroking your ego ("servile flattery")? Doubtful. Image credit: EmpathyLab.uk. Read the complete blog post: https://louagosta.com/2026/01/16/top-ten-empathy-trends-in-2026/

Top Trends in Empathy for 2026

The trend of bringing large language models to empathy and empathic relatedness is a game changer. The question is not whether the generative AI can be empathic, but the extent to which the designers are able to distinguish responsiveness from “stroking one’s ego,” sycophancy (servile flattery), and the extent to which prospective clients decide to engage (both open questions at this date (Q1 2026)). ...

Top Trends in Empathy for 2026 The trend of bringing large language models to empathy and empathic relatedness is a game changer. The question is not whether the generative AI can be empathic, but the extent to which the designe…

Join me, Lou Agosta, and a group of empathy thought leaders, evangelists, trainers, and enthusiasts for an online summit on expanding empathy
Saturday, January 3, 2026
Empathy Summit: Expanding Empathy in the Year Ahead: Jan 3, 2026 online -
EMPATHY SUMMIT:
How Might We Build the Empathy Movement?
see https://www.empathysummit.com/dates/jan-3-2026-movement
Saturday, January 3, 2026
Time: 9 am PT to 12:30 pm PT - World Times
Location: Zoom https://zoom.us/j/9896109339

I saw an educational ad today: “Empathy can't be automated” Made me think: The obvious, question is “Well, can you?” Pros and cons...Read the complete post at https://louagosta.com/2025/11/04/automating-empathy-issues-and-answers/

I saw an ad today - Empathy can't be automated. The obvious question is - well, can it? Turns out to be a trick question - my intuition is that empathy cannot be automated, but perhaps keys aspects of empathy can be simulated. Does this result in fake empathy? And how does it make a difference? Read the complete post at www.EmpathyLessons.com

http://empathylessons.com/2025/11/04/automating-empathy-issues-and-answers/

Automating Empathy – Issues and Answers I saw an advertisement today: “Empathy can’t be automated” Made me think: What is the evidence pro and con? The obvious question is “Well, can you?” The debate is joined. This turns out to be a tr…

Empathy and tragic drama - connecting the dots - Our empathy for the agent starts out requiring a decision that no one should have to make. In classic tragedy, the individual is forced to make a decision that neither the agent nor anyone else is authorized to make. But that agent has to make it anyway. Doing nothing is also a decision, and people are going to die. This is the definition of a double bind—damned if one does, and damned if one doesn’t. Read post: www.EmpathyLessons.com

Empathy and tragic drama - connecting the dots - In Greek tragedies the protagonist (hero) is often both a survivor and a perpetrator. Moral ambiguity and moral trauma are in the foreground - the hero is caught between a rock and a hard place - now empathize with that! The result is empathic distress - breakdown of empathy - however, that is not all - radical empathy is called forth - to empathize in the face of the breakdown of standard empathy. Read blog: www.empathyLessons.com

Our empathy for the agent starts out requiring a decision that no one should have to make. In classic tragedy, the individual is forced to make a decision that neither the agent nor anyone else is authorized to make. But that agent has to make it anyway. Doing nothing is also a decision, and people are going to die. This is the definition of a double bind—damned if one does, and damned if one doesn’t. In moral trauma one is no longer an agent in the full sense, which is one of the key hidden variable in classic tragedy—loss of agency. One’s agency is compromised by information asymmetries. Oedipus does not know who are his biological parents and he does not know that he does not know! One’s agency is compromised by inconsistent standards of behavior between the family and the political community, in which “cross fire” Antigone (and her family) are brought low. Now act! One is required to choose in the face of moral trauma—a choice one cannot make, that one ought not to have to make, but that, in any case, one is required to make. Radical empathy is attained when standard empathy honors the commitment to empathize in the face of empathic distress – the reaction on the part of audiences to circumstances in which tragic protagonists become entangled.This is empathy the “hard way,” and it is rare. However, no other way exists of attaining radical empathy than through empathy pure-and-simple...

louagosta.com Our empathy for the agent starts out requiring a decision that no one should have to make. In classic tragedy, the individual is forced to make a decision that neither the agent nor anyone else is …

A Short Talk on Trauma and Empathy: the challenge is not only that the would-be empathizer was not with the surviving Other when the survivor experienced the life-threatening trauma, but the survivor was physically present yet did not have the experience in such a way as to experience it. The survivor did not experience the experience. Once again, one searches for words to capture an experience one did not experience. That is a definition of “unclaimed” experience. It calls forth radical empathy

Cathy Caruth concisely defines trauma in terms of an experience that is registered but not experienced, a truth or reality that is not available to the survivor as a standard experience. The person (for example) was factually, objectively present when the head on collision occurred, but, even if the person has memories, and would acknowledge the event, paradoxically, the person does not presently experience it as something the person experienced in a way that a person standardly experienced the past event. The survivor experiences dissociated, repetitive nightmares, flashbacks, and depersonalization. When then is the treatment?

A concise talk on trauma and radical empathy Caruth (1996) concisely defines trauma in terms of an experience that is registered but not experienced, a truth or reality that is not available to the survivor as a standard experience. The perso…

Top twelve (12) empathy lessons is now a podcast

The empathic dozen: Top twelve (12) empathy lessons by A Rumor of Empathy with Lou Agosta Start with the one minute empathy trainin:g Drive out aggression, hostility, bullying, prejudice of all kinds, dignity violations, hypocrisy, making excuses, finger pointing, cynicism, resignation, bad language, manipulation, injuries to self-esteem, competing to be the biggest victim, and politics....

Noted in passing: Anna Ornstein (2027 - 2025) - www.empathyLessons.com
"To enhance the parents’ therapeutic potentials does not mean to give recommendations as to how to interrupt or actively discourage the child’s disturbing behavior. Particularly destructive are recommendations which ask for changed parental behavior without an appreciation for the parents’ difficulty to comply; such recommendations are “grafted” onto the parents’ pathology. Finding themselves unable to follow the therapi ...