Provisional chap“er The B”ilding of Empa“hy: Concep“”al ŗPillarsŘ and Conversa“ional Prac“ices in Psycho“herapy Michael B. B”chholz, Jörg Bergmann, Marie-L”ise Alder, Michael M. Di““mann, Florian Dreyer and Hors“ Kächele Addi“ional informa“ion is available a“ “he end of “he chap“er Abstract Empathy can be considered a special type of cooperation between therapist and patient. This exploratory study compares psychoanalytical, depth-psychological and behavioural therapy, in each case using transcriptions of audio recordings of initial, mid-term and late sessions. For each school of therapy, five treatments are included, creating a database of 45 sessions. We describe the project and the method of conversation analysis using examples of these transcripts and hypothesise that while all three schools of therapy are faced with common fundamental problems concerning the realisation of empathy, one can observe empathy profiles specific to each school. Here, we introduce theoretical groundwork and the terminology of conversation analysis. The topic may be of particular interest to clini- cians, since everyday problems are examined through the prism of microanalysis. Keywords: empathy, psychotherapy, conversation analysis, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural therapy 1. Introduction Empathy is not a binary variable that can be reduced to “yes” or “no”. What one person experiences as a moment of empathy another might not. Hence, empathy cannot be defined a priori or in abstract terms, rather it is something that is created—through conversation. An approach based on conversation and its analysis represents a departure from other important studies which examine empathy as an individual “ability” [1]. Tests have already been devel- oped [2] which have proved useful for studying autism for instance. “Empathy” and “evil” are often perceived as a continuum; lack of empathy is connected to violence, while empathy pre- vents it. © 2017 The A”“hor(s). Licensee InTech. This chap“er is dis“rib”“ed ”nder “he “erms of “he Crea“ive Commons A““rib”“ion License (h““p://crea“ivecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permi“s ”nres“ric“ed ”se, dis“rib”“ion, and reprod”c“ion in any medi”m, provided “he original work is properly ci“ed. %XFKKRO] 0LFKDHO % %HUJPDQQ -|UJ 5 $OGHU 0DULH/XLVH 'LWWPDQQ 0LFKDHO 0 'UH\HU )ORULDQ .lFKHOH +RUVW  7KH %XLOGLQJ RI (PSDWK\ &RQFHSWXDO SLOODUV DQG &RQYHUVDWLRQDO 3UDFWLFHV LQ 3V\FKRWKHUDS\ LQ .RQGR 0DNLNR +UVJ (PSDWK\  $Q HYLGHQFHEDVHG LQWHUGLVFLSOLQDU\ SHUVSHFWLYH KWWSVZZZLQWHFKRSHQFRPERRNV 2SHQ $FFHVV ,Q7HFK