Empathy ...to understand emotions and to recognise them in other people
Citizens from all walks of life have come together to create Ionbhá, the nation’s new bible of empathy
Almost 100 influential names from every corner of Irish life have collaborated to share their experiences of empathy in a groundbreaking book co-edited by Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy. Ionbhá, The Empathy Book For Ireland, is a collection of personal reflections, memoirs, poems and revealing essays from men and women from all walks of Irish life; and from the President to Panti Bliss, each one’s unique contribution highlights how empathetic actions can have an emphatic impact.
Murphy, who notes empathy can ‘be a bulwark against intolerance’ and ‘bring connection to a disconnected world’, got involved through his work as patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway.
Here we include extracts from Blindboy Boatclub’s powerful and thought-provoking essay; an insightful piece from the Edge, Paul McGrath on how simple acts of kindness can make all the difference, and Imelda May’s poetic call to arms.
Ionbhá, published by Mercier Press, goes on sale this week priced €24.99. All royalties go directly to delivering the Activating Social Empathy education programme in Irish schools and youth work organisations.
Extracts from Sausage Poisoning by Blindboy Boatclub
In the village of Wibald, Germany, in 1793 there was an outbreak of food poisoning that killed 13 people. Their eyelids drooped, their muscles became limp, their facial muscles froze. They had eaten blutwurst, the congealed blood of an animal encased in its gut and boiled. Their disease became known as Sausage Poisoning.
…
Empathy is a skill that I have learned over the years. It’s not an instinct or a gut reaction for me – it’s a tool that I’ve had to develop through mindful awareness and self-compassion.
When I was 19. I suffered from anxiety attacks. Mine were an intense, incredibly real sensation of panic accompanied by the belief that I was in the process of dying. Very sudden, and with no warning. Usually in public places. I didn’t understand what they were or why they happened. So I blamed the public places and avoided visiting them. I stayed in my bedroom. Surrounded by music, books and objects that interested me. I took comfort in Things and ideas, not people. I became agoraphobic. With persistent anxiety, it became difficult to label and name my individual emotions. All of my emotions threaded into one great curtain of dread. I just felt ‘bad’ all of the time and I wanted to escape that overwhelming bad feeling.
Any attempt to put a name on what I was experiencing, or why I was feeling that way, made the curtain heavier and more confusing. It darkened my brain. It took my clarity. I wanted to leave my body, because my body was my enemy. I couldn’t identify the shame, fear and the anger that constituted this curtain of dread.
...
The sausages contained botulinum, a toxin that causes the muscles to paralyse. Botulinum is known to us today as Botox. It is used to prevent wrinkles, to keep us looking youthful. But a Botox injection to the face comes at a price – it blocks the nerve signals to the skin and prevents wrinkles from developing.
At the expense of comfortably expressing facial emotions, a person who has received a Botox injection doesn’t frown or smile with ease.
In 2001 The Journal of Emotion and Cognition published the study ‘When did her smile drop? Facial mimicry and the influences of emotional state on the detection of change in emotional expression’.
The study focused on the capacity to experience empathy in people who had received
Botox injections. Empathy is a feedback loop. When you identify that another person is smiling or laughing, we mirror that person’s facial expressions and experience a similar emotion. This is empathy. Individuals who had Botox injections were unable to mirror another person’s emotional state with the muscles of their face. And over time, their capacity to empathise diminished. …
In my personal journey, it
I HAD A CURTAIN OF DREAD. I FELT FEAR, I FELT TERROR. BUT NOT MUCH ELSE
worked both ways.
How could I possibly identify another person’s feelings, or read another person’s facial expressions, when I myself couldn’t identify and label my own emotions? All I knew on a daily basis was the curtain of dread. I felt fear, I felt terror. But not much else. So I began to meditate twice a day. When I meditated, I felt a momentary calm. The curtain of dread was lifted. The fear wasn’t present. And I was free to sit with my body and my feelings in a mindful and safe way. Slowly, I turned my concentration inward.
The curtain of dread started to flutter and I could see through my window. I began to silently observe and identify the full palette of my internal emotional world. By understanding, feeling and identifying my emotions I then began to calmly and safely identify the emotions of others.