The Empathy Paradox: Rhetoric, Media, and the Trouble with Identification

How resisting empathy may lead to more thoughtful reading and better writing

Empathy has traditionally been understood as a bridge between the self and others. In composition studies, it is often used as a foundation for effective reading, allowing students to connect with authors, characters, and ideas. Now, in the era of social media apologies and self-help advice, empathy is conceptualized regularly as a tool for individual validation that promotes personal gain over relational depth. Overidentification, Rachel McCabe argues, can lead to the erasure of differences in others' lived experiences and the omission of complicating details in texts.

In The Empathy Paradox, McCabe analyzes the evolving role of empathy in contemporary media, film, literature, and culture. She asks what happens when readers and viewers directly consider the complex ways that empathy guides their understanding and assessment of the culture they consume. By developing an awareness of our assumptions, we can avoid the pitfalls of self-interest and overidentification and develop more constructive applications of empathy that will help us become better readers and writers.

Rachel McCabe is associate professor and director of the writing program at La Salle University. She is coeditor of Composition and Rhetoric in Contentious Times.