@article{d9321b09f67e4881828c0b1f8e862a39,
title = "A critical analysis of neurological theories on empathy in healthcare",
abstract = "Some employ neurological theories of empathy to train medical students and to explain why care work is emotionally exhausting. I argue, however, that these theories develop conceptual and methodological confusion that creates a reductive and misdirected focus in patient-centered care. Neurological theories on empathy do not help us understand patient-centered care, nor do they help us understand why care work can be exhausting. By discussing examples of care work, I argue that empathic attentiveness to patients is a dialogical ethical response to the whole person and takes place in daily care settings of working, helping, and responding to each other.",
keywords = "Burnout, Care ethics, Dementia, Dialogue, Elderly care, Emotion, Neuroscience",
author = "Ylva Gustafsson",
note = "Funding Information: I want to thank the anonymous referees of the journal for valuable comments of earlier versions of this paper. I thank the editor, Robyn Bluhm, for kind encouragement and helpful suggestions for improvements. I thank Kurt Milberger and A.Y. Yomi Odedeyi for their editorial assistance. I thank the participants at the research seminars at the Research Centre for Practical Knowledge at S{\"o}der-t{\"o}rn University, Sweden, and the Department of Philosophy at {\AA}bo Akademi University for many helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. The paper is a result of two research projects: “Empathy and conversations in health care, is there a method of moral understanding?” funded by the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth foundation 2016 and “Critical perspectives on empathy in medicine: the rise of cognitive science and the loss of narrative medicine,” funded by {\AA}bo Akademi University and the Kone foundation, 2018–20. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Indiana University Press. All rights reserved.",
year = "2021",
doi = "https://doi.org/10.3138/ijfab-14.2.07",
language = "English",
volume = "14",
pages = "97--113",
journal = "IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics",
issn = "1937-4585",
publisher = "University of Toronto press",
number = "2",
}