Empathy

1. Etymology

Empathy names an introjection of the object, based on the unconscious projection of subjective contents. Related: compare identification; extraversion; contrast abstraction / introversion.

2. Plain summary

Empathy presupposes trust toward the object—a readiness to meet it halfway, a subjective assimilation that brings (or simulates) good understanding between subject and object. Where abstraction pairs with introversion, empathy corresponds to extraversion: the empathetic person finds a world that needs subjective feeling to give it life and soul, and animates it with themselves.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common empathy motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
introjection of object; unconscious projection of subjective contents; trust / meet halfway; subjective assimilation; understanding (or simulation); vs abstraction; pairs with extraversion; animates world with self; Type Problem in Aesthetics neighborhood.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology empathy is extraverted subject–object animation—Type Problem in Aesthetics territory. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels has no dedicated head (body uses appear). §5 holds sample CW stamps at CW 6 ¶¶489, 492.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Empathy. An introjection of the object, based on the unconscious projection of subjective contents. (Compare identification.) Empathy presupposes a subjective attitude of confidence, or trustfulness towards the object… In contrast to abstraction, associated with introversion, empathy corresponds to the attitude of extraversion. The man with the empathetic attitude finds himself… in a world that needs his subjective feeling to give it life and soul. He animates it with himself.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶¶489, 492 in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated empathy head (list):

(No dedicated Samuels head for empathy.) Related under extraversion / projection / identification.

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

It is indeed true that empathy presupposes a subjective attitude of confidence, or trustfulness towards the object. It is a readiness to meet the object halfway, a subjective assimilation that brings about a good understanding between subject and object, or at least simulates it… Empathy can create similarities and seemingly common qualities which have no real existence in themselves.
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, pp. 414–415, ¶489)

The man with the empathetic attitude finds himself, on the contrary, in a world that needs his subjective feeling to give it life and soul. He animates it with himself, full of trust… … empathy corresponds to the mechanism of extraversion, and abstraction to that of introversion.
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 416, ¶492)

See also: extraversion; introversion; abstraction; projection; assimilation; feeling; participation-mystique.

References

Jung, C. G. (1971). The type problem in aesthetics. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, pp. 414–416, ¶¶489, 492). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.