The Empathic Civilisation

Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. View the full video of Jeremy Rifkin’s talk at the RSA.

The Human Journey, the discovery of Mirror Neurons in Parma Italy through MRI brain scans. All humans are soft-wired with mirror neurons. Experience another’s plight. First drive is to belong. Empathy. Empathetic distress. Self-hood and empathy begins as we become vulnerable. We show solidarity with compassion. How does consciousness change in history? The view taken by this presenter is somewhat a monotheistic religious view, but never-the-less, interesting.

This is in some ways an evolutionary journey through our human history which is very similar to the description “Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of Adult Bio-psychosocial Systems Development” (1981), which is also known as “Levels of Human Existence Theory” (1970) or “Emergent-Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory” (ECLET or E-C) and popularised these days in the studies of Spiral Dynamics.

Also see Acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, is a cognitive-behavioural model of psychotherapy and/or The Evolutionary Psychology of Happiness