Great Read Excerpt-The Empathetic Civilization-An Important Book

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Great Read Excerpt is from an important book, one of my favorite books- The Empathetic Civilization:
Irene Becker www.justcoachit.com 
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The Empathetic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis by Jeremy Rifkin

“One can’t truly empathize with the vulnerability and struggle of another unless he is able to acknowledge the same vulnerabilities and struggles in himself. If a person locks up whole parts of his emotional make-up, he is truly unfree, imprisoning parts of his own psyche and closing off his unique being from meaningful expression and engagement with the world. He becomes the jailer of his own persona. No one ever gets to know the “real him” and establish a meaningful relationship. He is truly alone, as much as the individual who has been ostracized or banished.

Empathic extension is the only human expression that creates true equality between people. When one empathizes with another, distinctions begin to melt away. The very act of identifying with another’s struggle as if it were one’s own is the ultimate expression of a sense of equality. One can’t really empathize unless one’s being is on the same emotional plane as another.”

Rifkin, Jeremy (2009). The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis |

Irene Becker www.justcoachit.com

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