Breithaupt Fritz - The Dark Sides of Empathy

One should not dedicate a book about the dark sides of empathy to anyone. However, one can thank those who helped in the making of the book. This starts with my family, who had to endure the long process of writing and rewriting and all the emotions that go along with that. Thank you, Leela, Kira, Lara, and Noah.

The book is the result of many conversations with family, friends, colleagues, and students. Many of their ideas or formulations found their way into the book. Even better, they set me straight when my thoughts were off target. If it would not sound like a backhanded compliment, I could say that they offered me much empathy. Some of them may be astonished that only five dark sides made the final list. In particular, I would like to thank Colin Allen, Aleida Assmann, Claudia Breger, Christopher Chiasson, Daniel Cuonz, Jean Decety, Wolfram Eilenberger, Kevin Houser, Phillip Hlzing, Philipp Kanske, Suzanne Keen, Sarah Konrath, Binyan Li, Lauren Lu, Christoph Paret, Eyal Peretz, Cassidy Sugimoto, Johannes Trk, Arne Willee, and Lisa Zunshine.

The book started as a translation of my book Die dunklen Seiten der Empathie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2017). My translator, Andrew B. B. Hamilton, gave the original book a new spin and infused it with his endless wit and energy. But somehow in the process it morphed into a new book. This is due to the fabulous editor Mahinder S. Kingra from Cornell University Press, who shook down every word and idea until they fell into place. Having started as an accessory, he ended up an equal partner in crime. Julia Cook gave the text the final touches as the exceptional copyeditor who remembered every twist of my arguments until the end; I fear she understands the book better than I do.

A few ideas from my other texts also found their way into the book, including some thoughts from my earlier book, Kulturen der Empathie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2009), and speculations about the development of sadistic empathy first developed in Empathy for Empathys Sake: Aesthetics and Empathic Sadism, in Empathy and its Limits, ed. Aleida Assmann und Ines Detmers (New York: Palgrave, 2016), 15165.

The translation of the book was generously supported by a grant-in-aid from Indiana Universitys Office of the Vice Provost for Research. My previous work was supported by a grant from the Templeton Foundation that allowed me to lay the foundations for the ideas presented in this book.

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