Like most other human abilities, empathy probably serves the empathizer first and foremost and not the target of empathy. This assumption is certainly no great insight but it inoculates one from the idea that “more empathy” alone is the best guard against egocentrism, narcissism, and self-interest. By coexperiencing, the empathetic person enriches first of all his or her own experiences and knowledge before possibly also helping the other person. In this sense, we could say that this book is devoted to the egotism of empathy and the aesthetic pleasure of the empathizer.
