Original scientific paper

Rousseau’s Understanding of Compassion: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Karla Lončar ; Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb, Croatia
Željka Matijašević ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The paper analyses Rousseau’s use of the concepts of self-love, pity (compassion) and vanity, and their relation to modern psychoanalytic concepts. Self-love is brought into relation with Freud’s self-preservation; vanity is coupled with narcissistic grandiosity and arrogance, while pity (compassion) bears resemblances to the modern concept of empathy. Rousseau’s distinction between the three resonates well with the main controversy within psychoanalytic theory: the one between drive theories and object (relational) theories. Rousseau’s thought can be interpreted as embracing both sides avant la lettre: his emphasizing of self-love is close to instinctual individualism, while pity would be a form of objectal relations. In final analysis, Rousseau’s self-love overlaps with Kohut’s concept of healthy narcissism which is central to the development of personality, as the absence of healthy narcissism is equally problematic as any pathological form of narcissism (idealizing or grandiose narcissism).

Keywords

Jean-Jacques Rousseau; compassion/pity; psychoanalysis; narcissism; empathy

Hrčak ID:

132996

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/132996

Publication date:

26.11.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 2.437 *