WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: High Conflict by Amanda Ripley
I read this book like a novel, unable to put it down! The book explores a number of case studies of high conflict, and analyses the conditions that led to the conflict and how the people involved managed to escape from the high conflict trap. One of the case studies involved the “father of mediation”
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Against Empathy by Paul Bloom
I’ve been reading and writing a lot about empathy recently, as part of my Working With Emotions in Conflict course, and more broadly. This book caught my attention and was fascinating reading. I do love an author who challenges some of the things we take for granted, and Bloom certainly does this. The book is
Jazz and conflict resolution
I’m not a skilled jazz musician. In fact, I played the violin for many years and was part of a youth orchestra – there was no room for improvisation in that setting! However, I have always loved jazz. Jazz is a great metaphor for constructive approaches to conflict. There is also so much we can learn from the
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Everyday Mind Reading by William Ickes
Ickes is a well known researcher in the area of empathic accuracy – in other words he studies how good people are at identifying others’ feelings. This book provides an easy way to follow and understand the research on this topic, without having to read all the dense academic papers. In many ways, this book
Unpacking empathy
HISTORY OF THE TERM EMPATHY German philosopher Theodor Lipps first introduced the term Einfuhlung (empathy) around 1903 to describe how we should fully appreciate a work of art. His idea was that we should project ourselves into the work and experience it from within, rather than imposing our own frame of reference to interpret the
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Dis-Solving Conflict from Within by Henry Yampolsky
Unlike many books about conflict resolution which provide advice about what to do in our interactions with others, this book focuses on what we can do within ourselves. It’s a kind of mindfulness meets conflict approach to conflict transformation. The author explains that conflict is not some force outside us, happening to us. Rather it