Abstract

MOREIRA, Virginia  and  TORRES, Rafael Bruno. Empathy and phenomenological reduction: potential contribution to the Rogers thought. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.65, n.2, pp. 181-197. ISSN 1809-5267.

The concept of empathic understanding holds a key position in the psychotherapy of Carl Rogers, the psychotherapist aims to capture the feelings and personal meanings that the client is living. This article aims to explore possible contributions that phenomenological reduction, as understood by Merleau-Ponty, can provide to the therapist´s experience of being empathic. Humanistic phenomenological clinical practice has shown that the use of the concept of phenomenological reduction has much to contribute to psychotherapy. We conclude that the phenomenological reduction shows up as a resource that, used in phenomenological psychotherapy, allows the psychotherapist to put brackets to personal and theoretical contents, with the purpose of seeking to penetrate the lived world of the client, understanding it with empathy.

Keywords : Empathy; Carl Rogers; Phenomenological reduction; Merleau-Ponty; Psychotherapy.

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