Empathy and self-empathy in the anthropological dimension of modernity

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Communal Institution of Higher Education "Dnipro Academy of Music" of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council

Empathy and self-empathy in the anthropological dimension of modernity

Y.O. SHABANOVA

Dnipro

Annotation

empathy human spirituality intersubjective

Purpose. In the article, the author questions rethinking the phenomena of empathy and self-empathy as modes of self-understanding of humanity and the inner intention to self-exploration of human spirituality. Theoretical basis. The research is based on the phenomenological dimension of modern anthropology and axiology. Originality. The change of the traditional intersubjective approach in the understanding of empathy to an introsubjective one and the affirmation of self-empathy as one of the defining existences in human beings, which is adjusted by the altruism- egoism value scale and forms the skills of unconditional empathic action towards the Other as a mode of selfexploration in the spiritual essence of a person are argued. Conclusions. The commonplace in a wide palette of research views on empathy is the construct for the Self - Other disposition and the intersubjective approach emphasizing the object of empathy. Transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from the object to the subject of empathic action opens up deep possibilities of spiritual improvement as a way of self-awareness in the human essence. The transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from intersubjective (I in the Other) to introsubjective (I through the Other) has the potential for spiritual development according to the altruism- egoism value scale. Empathy as an introsubjective position of self-exploration is inseparably connected with selfempathy, which in the mutual integration of its three main components - benevolence towards oneself, reflexivity towards one's own experience and a tendency to understand one's fate as common to all mankind - forms an important regulator of self-understanding of a person's spiritual potential and the possibility of the practical extrapolation for these skills to an empathic way of communication at all levels of anthropo-being. Anthropological accentuation on the inner essence and meanings of human existence is carried out through intuition and self-altruism as the fading of pragmatic interest in the socially conditioned Self (Ego) and immersion in the essential Self - the bearer of the universal spiritual in a person. Self-empathy is considered in the context of the ideas of Stoicism as a deep selfimmersion in the human essence and sensitivity to immediate emotional internal states, as a construct of emotional intelligence and a way of realizing individual uniqueness in the context of the metamodern concept of atopy. Selfempathy is defined as one of the key existences in human beings, which forms the skill of altruistic (unconditional) implementation of empathy.

Keywords: empathy; self-empathy; self-exploration of the spiritual; introsubjectivity; altruism; atopy

Анотація

Ю. O. ШЛБАНОВА КЗВО "Дніпровська академія музики" Дніпропетровської обласної ради (Дніпро, Україна),

Емпатія та самоемпатія в антропологічному вимірі сучасності

Мета. За основну мету статті авторка ставить переосмислення феноменів емпатії та самоемпатії як модусів саморозуміння людяності та внутрішньої інтенції до самодослідження духовності людини. Теоретичний базис. Дослідження ґрунтується на феноменологічному вимірі сучасної антропології та аксіології. Наукова новизна. Аргументовано зміну традиційного інтерсуб'єктивного підходу в розумінні емпатії на інтро- суб'єктивний та ствердження самоемпатії як однієї з визначальних екзистенцій людського буття, що корегується ціннісною шкалою альтруїзм-егоїзм та формує навички необумовленої емпатійної дії до Іншого як модусу самодослідження духовної сутності людини. Висновки. Загальним місцем широкої палітри дослідницьких поглядів на емпатію виступає конструкт диспозиції Я - Інший та інтерсуб'єктивний підхід з акцентуацією на об' єкті емпатії. Зміна уваги з об' єкта на суб'єкт емпатійної дії відкриває глибинні можливості духовного вдосконалення як шляху самоусвідомлення людської сутності. Трансформація вектора інтенції емпатійної свідомості з інтерсуб'єктивного (Я в Іншому) на інтросуб'єктивний (Я через Іншого) містить потенціал духовного розвитку відповідно до шкали цінностей альтруїзм-егоїзм. Емпатія як інтросуб'єктивна позиція самодослідження невіддільно пов'язана з самоемпатією, що у взаємоінтеграції її трьох основних компонентів - доброзичливість до себе, рефлексивність до власного досвіду і схильність розуміти свою долю як спільну для всього людства - формує важливий регулятор самоосмислення духовного потенціалу людини та можливість практичної екстраполяції цих навичок на емпатійний спосіб комунікації на всіх рівнях антропобуття. Антропологічна акцентуація на внутрішній сутності та смислах людської екзистенції здійснюється через інтуїцію та самоальтруїм як згасання прагматичної зацікавленості соціально-обумовленим Я (Его) та заглибленням у сутнісне Я - носія універсально-духовного в людині. Самоемпатію розглянуто в контексті ідей стоїцизму як глибинного самозанурення в людську сутність та чутливість до безпосередніх емоційних внутрішніх станів, як конструкт емоційного інтелекту та способу усвідомлення індивідуальної неповторності в контексті метамодерного концепту атопічності. Самоемпатію визначено однією з ключових екзистенцій людського буття, що формує навичку альтруїстичного (необумовленого) здійснення емпатії.

Ключові слова: емпатія; самоемпатія; самодослідження духовного; інтросуб'єктивність; альтруїзм; ато- пічність

Introduction

The modern person's life goes on in complex conditions of permanent conflicts (interpersonal, socio-political, geopolitical). Mass tragedies and dramatic scenarios of the Russian-Ukrainian war raised the level of depression to the limitations of human capacity, which demonstrates the need to review existentially viable forms of human existence. One of the characteristics concerning the modern metamodern worldview is the vacillation between the highest values of the contemporary and their negation by the postmodern. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and instability are the most difficult challenges of a modern person, who has to keep hope for a happy life in the conditions of a radical revision of the semantic space in modernity. Under these conditions, the demand for an empathic dimension of building sociocultural ties and interpersonal relations is intensified. The absence or insufficiency of empathy creates misunderstandings between individuals or social groups and as a result creates grounds for conflicts, aggression, and wars. Digitization, as a metamodern feature of all forms of modern life, contributes to the mass manipulation of consciousness to collide different forms of identities, in particular Ukrainian and Russian. In this connection, empathy should undertake the mission of consciously understanding and perceiving different identities for peaceful coexistence and mutual enrichment. Ten years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in particular 2 years of full- scale Russian military aggression, changed people's attitudes towards the war itself and each other. Today, the "war-weariness" narrative is spreading both inside Ukraine and in America and European countries, which seems dangerous for the further trajectory of the development of socio-political events. As a result of weariness from constant stress, there is indifference and unwillingness to perceive and understand the tragedy of others.

Total digitalization, reproducing a mosaic picture of the world, is increasingly moving the life of a modern person into virtual reality, depriving the possibility of full-fledged and multi-vector communication, through which a wide world of understanding in the infinity of human nature and its deep essence opens up. The pandemic and war, on the one hand, pushed people into the sphere of online reality, on the other hand, forced many to change their place of residence, which gave rise to new tests for the human psyche - entering into unusual forms of communication with representatives of other cultures and mentalities, creating a state of permanent stress for everyone participants of sociocultural reality.

In this regard, understanding the phenomenon of empathy should substantiate the constructs of resistance to weariness, aggression, and misunderstanding and contribute to the formation of a high level of meaningful existence in a community of people of different identities, ideological positions, and national groups. So, based on the above, research-on-demand the phenomenon of empathy is indisputable. The time has come when empathy should become the leading tool for building the life of both an individual and any social community and humanity as a whole. With regards to the socio-cultural context of today is determined by the signs of metamodernism, which creates fundamentally new anthropological dimensions and conditions for the person's realization, research on empathy should be considered in the context of the transformation of this phenomenon, which was not the subject of attention of most anthropologists even 20 years ago. Today, the time has come not only to investigate the phenomenon of empathy from the viewpoint of the theory of consciousness or psychology. In my opinion, empathy is the practical level of building relationships that can save humanity, which has been lost in the wilds of global egocentrism, losing the opportunity to understand those who live, breathe, and contemplate the starry sky differently. Yes, empathy in the questions of modernity can become not only psychological salvation but also an understanding of who we are and why we reproduce our essence. It seems to me that empathy as an object of scientific attention can contribute to the understanding of life practice, which is designed to reveal the essence of a person - that is, one's humanity. In conditions of increased attention to the individual and unique, the feeling of a person as a person capable of sympathy and empathy for the difficult trials that befall him at present is especially in demand. In my opinion, empathy, as a potential depth of human spirituality, without exaggeration, can save humanity from self-destruction. Empathy as a path to understanding and essential unification of people, in which self-understanding of one's human nature becomes the primary task.

Purpose

Empathy as a phenomenon of human consciousness becomes a mode-on-demand in the realization of human nature and requires a philosophical understanding of its modern forms of realization. Until now, empathy has been overwhelmingly viewed as a construct of understanding another person, leaving out the internally intentional dimension of the subject of empathy without due attention. Based on this, the purpose of the provided development is to rethink empathy and self-empathy as modes of self-understanding of humanity and inner intention for spiritual self-improvement.

Statement of basic materials

Even 10-12 years ago, the word empathy was associated with a purely scientific concept and was practically not found in journalism, fiction, or everyday life. Today, the situation has changed significantly. The word empathy has become practically used at all levels of communication. In the humanities, there has been a significant shift in the direction of interest in empathy as a subject of anthropological research. An analysis of articles in the database of the American Psychological Association showed that in 1990 there were about 10 research papers related to empathy, in 2013 - nearly a thousand works were recorded. Currently, in the domestic and foreign space, we see a several thousand research per year devoted to the phenomenon of empathy, which is studied by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, neurophysiologists, cultural scientists, etc. This contributes to the practical dissemination of the results of theoretical research into psychotherapeutic, social, and cultural practices and, accordingly, to the awareness of the common population, for whom empathy is already losing the status of a scientific category and moving into the sphere of everyday life.

The birthplace of the concept of "empathy" is considered to be the German-language problematic field of non-classical philosophy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, within which the irrational, subjective, individual becomes the subject of philosophical comprehension. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer laid the foundations of empathic problems in his concept of the ethics of compassion, which is based on the single essence of everything that exists - the metaphysical principle of the unconditional will to live. Wilhelm Dilthey, a German representative of the philosophy of life, introduces the concepts of "empathy" and "reexperiencing" into scientific circulation. The German psychologist Theodor Lipps uses the concept of "sensitivity" as "an objective well-being." Carl Jaspers enriches Diltheev's concept of "sensitivity" with meaningful "empathy", which is defined as a method of understanding psychology. All presented concepts are related to experiencing, using, and feeling the experience of the Other, strengthening the disposition of I and the Other, the division into how I experience it, and how the Other experiences it. From this, we can infer: Not everything in the world is the way I perceive it. The assumption of such a position, which is the basis for empathy, has the potential for expanding ideas about anthropological nature and the possibility of realizing one of the tasks of empathy - compassion as the enrichment of empathic subjectivity with the new, unexperienced experience itself - the inclusion of the infinite palette of the sensory space of human nature in the arsenal of consciousness.

Within continental philosophy, the depth of human experiences and compassions receives increased interest in the work of such philosophers as H. Kohut, S. Ferenczi, M. Scheler, and E. Stein. The founder of phenomenology, E. Husserl, considers sensibility as the experience of another consciousness, as a condition for the phenomenological justification of the ontology of the Other.

Husserl's student and follower, Edith Stein, was the first woman in Europe to defend her doctoral dissertation in philosophy. It was also the first research paper on the issue of sensibility on the topic: "On the Problem of Empathy" (Stein, 2018). Edith Stein's (2018) phenomenological theory of empathy assumes that empathy is revealed in three stages: "The first is when someone else's life suddenly grows in front of me; the second - when the Self is involved in the mental state of the Other; the third enables not only participation but also awareness of objective worries" as an understanding of the experience of the Other (p. 27). I emphasize - not cognition, but awareness, that is, not an explanation, but a meaningful acceptance of another, so far not personally known, experience. The third stage of empathic sensitivity, which is considered awareness of the experience of the Other, is based on the principle of identity of the subject and the object of empathy. In this regard, sensitivity implicitly includes a model of achieving unity, as overcoming subject-object oppositions.

The above-presented elaborations of the concepts of "sensibility", "sympathy", and "compassion" did not use the term "empathy". In 1909, the English psychologist E. Titchener translated the German word "einfuhlung" into English as "empathy" by analogy with the term "sympathy" already existing by that time. The merit of Titchener is the introduction of the very term "empathy" into scientific psychology as a capacious concept capable of "attracting" to itself various contents that are united by empathy and living in the state of the Other. In contrast to sympathy, empathy fulfills the mission of reproducing a universal attitude towards all people, and not only towards those who are close and congruent. Empathy expands the range of sensitivity, including everything unusual, both positive and negative. In this regard, it will be appropriate to compare the content of empathy with the close concept of sympathy, which was rejected by Titchener, and with antipathy, as the opposite of state sympathy. Sympathy is a positive feeling of coincidence with a related person, that is, coincidence with what is already included and experienced in one's own experience. Accordingly, sympathy is based on the principle of identity, similarity, or analogy. Sympathy is a positive feeling, but it does not enrich other experiences but affirms and strengthens already-known states. Sympathy is a confirmation of one's own experience in the similarity of the Other. Unlike sympathy, empathy is based on receiving a new experience that has not been experienced personally. Empathy is the practice of entering unknown states and, unlike sympathy, often unpleasant or dissonant. This is the productive meaning of empathy, as the possibility of accepting a fundamentally new experience and previously unknown personal experience, the ability to perceive and understand the states of the Other! The importance of empathy is revealed through comparison with antipathy, which provokes separation from foreign states and does not seek to enter into new experiences and understand them. Antipathy divides, which is often used as a tool of manipulation. Empathy, on the other hand, is intended to teach how to perceive and respect the opposite, both unfavorable and pleasant states, which have not yet been subjectively experienced, based on the metaphysical foundation of the ontological essential unity of human nature.

Further study of the phenomenon of empathy gives rise to various approaches and directions of research, revealing the complexity and multidimensionality of this concept. Perhaps this is the reason for the lack of consensus on its definition among scientists until now, who have taken the separation of the phenomenon of empathy itself from related constructs of consciousness and subconsciousness as a primary task (Batson, 2009; Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004; Zhou, Valiente, & Eisenberg, 2003). It is important to distinguish, at least at a conceptual level, between pure empathy and other manifestations related to empathy, such as sympathy, compassion emotional, or social sympathy.

British researchers in the work "Empathy: A Review of the Concept" (Cuff, Brown, Taylor, & Howat, 2016), analyzing English-language works on the problem of empathy in the last 15 years, note two main directions in their systematization. These are theoretical works of a research nature, which for the most part tend towards a phenomenological approach, and works related to psychotherapy, in which the psychotherapist's empathy plays a constructive role and requires the justification of a certain mechanism of empathic listening, behavior, and conducting a session by a psychotherapist. The provided systematization clearly reveals the theoretical and practical directions of studying the phenomenon of empathy (Vescio, Hewstone, Crisp, & Rubin, 1999). Therefore, the traditional research approach to the phenomenon of empathy is to determine the specifics of cognitive and affective empathy (Stephan & Finlay, 1999). Recent research has shown that empathy is a multidimensional construct that consists of several processes. In empirical research, it is often difficult to distinguish between different processes of empathy (e.g., cognitive, affective, or motor empathy) or different modes of response related to empathy (personal distress or compassion). Therefore, the definition of empathy, as well as its correlates, changes depending on the operational concept of the construct. It is important to note that nowadays these approaches need to be complemented with the implementation of research achievements not only in the practice of psychotherapy or other professions that require empathic competence (a doctor, a teacher, etc.) but also in a wide range of implementation of the life world of an average person. In this regard, the Polish phenomenologist of the 20th century R. Ingarden (1971) believed that "the question of how and to what extent we learn about the mental states experienced by other people" goes beyond the scope of the theory of cognition and becomes important not only for philosophy but also for practice life (p. 407).

A significant amount of research on the problem of empathy is devoted to issues of social manifestation of empathy in group forms of implementation - the so-called cultural empathy. Intergroup communications and the conditions for their improvement due to the understanding of other forms of mentality are examined in the space of its implementation (Dovidio et al., 2010; Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004; Stephan & Finlay, 1999).

As a response to the development of neurophysiology, research related to the neuromechanism of the empathic process arises (Heyes, 2018; Thirioux, Birault, & Jaafari, 2016). Modern neurophysiology attempts to explain the unconditioned empathic experience of a person. Mirror neurons, discovered at the end of the 20th century, are responsible for the excitation and activation of similar physiological processes when contemplating other people and their actions. There is an assumption that mirror neurons are responsible for the physiology of empathic action. But these processes illustrate the mechanics of how the reverse physiological reaction of the body occurs and do not provide a meaningful answer to the question: Why and for what people can sympathize? As these are only physiological processes, empathy can be carried out automatically. If it were so, then people would already become identical empathetic robots. But empathy is a purely human internal potential ability, which is determined by language, emotions, feelings, intellect and reason, internal morality, social and cultural experience, and most importantly - the task of the spirit, which, according to Max Scheler, makes a person human.

In most research, the general characterization of the concept of empathy is defined as An aspect of human response that is crucial for understanding positive development. Empathy encourages helping others and seeking justice for others and inhibits aggression towards others. In addition, empathy also promotes socially competent human interaction and provides a sense of connection between people. (Zhou, Eisenberg, & Valiente, 2019, p. 252)

For the sake of objectivity, I will note that critics of empathy find negative aspects, viewing its manifestations as exhausting, the possibility of manipulation and loss of one's Self. They believe that empathic actions are based on bias and selectivity in motives and methods of manifestation. Understanding empathy as egocentrically motivated leads to surprising conclusions about moral decision-making. To be convinced of these tendencies, it is enough to turn to Paul Bloom's (2018) book "Against Empathy" or Fritz Breithaupt's (2019) "The Dark Side of Empathy". It turns out that these approaches use signs of selfish selectivity, which emphasize the contradiction of the moral nature of empathy and do not take into account the unreasoned motive of empathy as a manifestation of unconditional altruism, through which humanity is manifested, as a universal essential feature of a person.

According to this, it can be noted that every person has an empathic ability, as a reflection of eternal harmony with the world as a teleological principle of being. The level of development of empathy is another matter. There are people with a high level of empathy, there are people with a low level. There is a developed system for measuring the level of empathy, which allows you to recognize the individual capacity for empathy. However, no person does not have empathy at all or cannot develop it. Empathy is a genetic trait of a person and an indicator of his/her spirituality as a manifestation of humanity.

The above analysis of the problem field in researching the phenomenon of empathy showed that with all multi-vector and multidimensional approaches to the problem of empathy, the commonplace of research optics is the attitude towards the Other (or a group of Others) and studying the possibilities of empathic entry into another state. That is, the subject of attention is the object of empathy and the intersubjective tendency to approach it, as a meeting of differently organized interacting subjective worlds. The very subject of empathy as such in its pure, unconditioned realization remains beyond comprehension. I do not mean actions, experiences, and understanding as a way of entering the state of the Other, but the goal and a goal in itself of the subject of empathy, that is, the motive of self-development and the way of self-improvement, self-expansion of the anthropological qualities in a person experiencing an empathic state, through which humanity is identified.

In this connection, empathy turns out to be a means of knowing the inner person, and the development of empathy is a way of spiritual self-improvement. Such a position requires a revision of the traditional view of empathy as entering, understanding, and empathizing with the condition of the Other, where the Other acts as the goal of the empathic process. As a result of this revision, the focus of attention is transferred from the object of empathy to the subject of empathy, as an internal view of oneself and the possibility of one's own improvement, revealing one's spiritual qualities by conscious altruism through empathy for the condition of the Other. A person's inner world becomes a space of spiritual self-exploration through intersubjectivity not only with the Other but with all aspects of the external world (with other identities, cultures, nature, and the Universe). The given position is formed based on the ethics of accepting the opposite, unfamiliar, and unexpected with attention to the internal transformations of the subject of empathy.

In this regard, empathy as an introsubjective position is inextricably linked to self-empathy, the skills of which are extrapolated to an empathetic way of communicating with the Other. The research literature on self-empathy problems is much smaller than on empathy problems. An analysis of the publications of the last decade made it possible to distinguish two research approaches to the study of this phenomenon: self-empathy as a state and self-empathy as a trait (Leary, Tate, Adams, Batts Allen, & Hancock, 2007; Neff, 2003; Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, 2005). In this context, K. Neff singles out three components of an empathic attitude towards oneself according to the conceptualization of the construct. The first dimension is "SelfKindness", that is, benevolence and understanding of one's weaknesses and shortcomings. According to K. Neff (2003), this allows you to avoid disappointment, stress, and exaggerated self-criticism. The second dimension is "mindfulness", that is, reflexivity, which involves being aware of one's feelings and sensations without trying to control or deny them (Neff, 2003). The opposite of this dimension is egoistic self-interest. The third dimension is "Common humanity", which, I think, can be translated as "humanity" itself, that is, the interpretation of one's own experience as part of the common experience of humanity, which will contribute to the consolidation at the level of universal values (Neff, 2003). According to K. Neff (2003), the three main constructs of self-empathy are mutually integrated and form a single meaningful space of a person's inner life.

Researchers of self-empathy separate this phenomenon from the bowels of compassion for oneself. Unlike self-empathy, which promotes connection with other people and their experiences, bowels of compassion for oneself provoke feelings of sadness and alienation from other people (Neff, 2003). People with developed bowels of compassion to themselves suffer from a hypertrophied sense of injustice to themselves and, as a result, egocentrism (Charmaz, 1980). Self-empathy and self-esteem appear to be different constructs of self-awareness (Barnard & Curry, 2011; Leary, Tate, Adams, Batts Allen, & Hancock, 2007; Neff & Vonk, 2009). According to the researchers, both phenomena are mutually corrected but not identical and correspond to the polar criteria of morality. Self-esteem contains a hidden motivation to adapt to the norms and values of the external world and social standards and accordingly forms a selfish desire to change externally, not internally. Self-empathy is more stable than high self-esteem, provides stability and less tendency to rumination, anger, and cognitive closure, based on an objective view of oneself, an unbiased assessment of one's inner state, and acceptance of oneself in the present implementation. At the same time, self-empathy helps to increase the feeling of happiness, optimism, and positive state (Neff & Vonk, 2009).

So, I propose to look at the issue of self-empathy as a primary and basic perspective of the formation of empathic skills and to change the traditional view of self-empathy from a narrowly psychological vision to an anthropological approach of identifying through self-empathy the potential of humanity, that is, the defining quality and specificity of human existence in its inner dimension. The key in this optics, in my opinion, is the anthropological turn to oneself, to the inner essence and meaning of human existence, which through self-emotion finds fulfillment in an introsubjective view and empathy.

In this perspective, the vocation of self-empathy is self-knowledge as a way of building selfattitude. Before the desire to empathize with the experience of the Other arises, a person must productively experience his/her own direct experience of emotions and feel the level of development of his/her consciousness in phenomenological unconditionedness. On this path, self-empathy is distinguished as self-knowledge and self-empathy as self-attitude.

The goal of self-empathy as self-knowledge is an individual sense of one's own goals, dreams, desires and, as a derivative, awareness, and understanding of the true goal of self-realization of individuality, which increasingly replaces the value of personal, not determined by external, social stereotypes. It is no coincidence that the peculiarity of a metamodern person is atopy, which the Dutch metamodern ideologues T. Vermeulen and R. van den Akker (2010) define as "center outside the topos, fluctuations outside the place". The condition for these implementations is the ability to listen to oneself outside of generally accepted social stereotypes; impartially feel one's own shortcomings and imperfections, achievements and virtues; to make decisions about self-realization appropriate to the actual situation, sometimes unexpected and incomprehensible to the external environment, the team, even close people. According to the majority, people do not live their own lives, due to the inertia of stereotypes imposed from childhood by education, society, and even morality. In the modern age of metamodernism, whose worldview is characterized by fluctuations between all the achievements of humanity and gathering them into qualitative integrity, the identification of creative potential and heuristic resources in the deployment of the unforeseen, unexpected, and unexpected acquires special importance. In these conditions, self-empathy is carried out as a way of extinguishing the limited Ego and entering the Self (deep Self) into the stream of evolution, feeling own's own place and mission on this path. This path of self-empathy leads to selfexploration of the spiritual in a person.

Self-empathy as a relationship, first of all, is considered a fruitful intimate affair with oneself, with one's unbiased essence and the construction of sincere internal communication (an internal dialogue). Aesthetic experience, which expands the palette of one's own internal states through living in high samples of artistic images, turns out to be a fruitful tool for building selfrelationships. It is not coincidentally that a large number of researchers consider aesthetic compassion and its higher form - catharsis - to be the standard of the empathic process in sociocultural and interpersonal relationships (Hansen & Roald, 2022; Pizzolante, Chirico, Gaggioli, & Riva, 2022). The experience of immersion of musical compositions into the figurative structure, which rises to the level of unconditioned abstraction, seems especially valuable. The process of perceiving works of art should go beyond entertainment or aesthetic satisfaction, recreating an internal dialogue between the present Self (the current state of the personality development) and the essential Self (the potential spiritual resource). Similar processes of internal communication through self-empathy also occur in the state of spiritual practices (prayer, concentration, meditation), which are aimed at maximally overcoming conditioning and entering a pure state of consciousness. Thus, through self-empathy, there is an internal dialogue and compassion of the universal space of meanings as a feeling of one's unity with highly artistic abstractions in art or spiritual ideals. Self-relationships through self-empathy form the experience of inner sincerity toward oneself and are translated into the skill of open and unbiased empathy towards the Other.

The processes of self-empathy and empathy for the Other are carried out in a mutually integrated space as a way of self-improvement through introsubjective experience and its translation into intersubjective processes. Intuition is the defining modus operandi of self-empathy and empathy, through the development of which spiritual improvement takes place. In this regard, empathy is not viewed unequivocally as a manifestation of irrational or rational structures of consciousness but is presented as a holistic quality of a person who is aware of his/her essential unity with the world and every element of its manifestation. While balancing the irrational- sensual and rational-mental, the empathic will acquire decisive significance in empathy, which forms the basis of spiritual practice, without which empathy for the Other remains at the level of unfulfilled aspirations, and intuition loses intentionality. If empathy performs the function of enriching one's own inner world through a meeting with the Other, previously unknown experience, then self-empathy is a meeting with the implicitly inherent depths of one's own Self, which acts as the object and subject of self-empathy. Intuition, based on the synthesis of the sensual and the rational, indicates the goal and trajectory of the empathy implementation in a non- judgmental attitude towards the object of empathy or self-empathy and protects against limited manifestations of egoism. Intuition develops under conditions of altruism both concerning the Other and to oneself. Self-altruism is the loss of pragmatic interest in the socially conditioned Self (Ego) and immersion in the unconditioned essential Self (Self as the bearer of the universal spiritual in a person). Therefore, not so much the connection with the object of empathy, as the leveling of one's own Ego turns out to be the real goal of self-empathy and empathy as a way of internal improvement in the free space of the phenomenological perspective.

The conceptual foundations in the practice of self-empathy can be observed even in the instructions of Stoicism, which formulated the conditions for understanding subjectivity through intrapersonal reflections on the purpose of a person. Marcus Aurelius' (2018) famous work "Alone with Myself" has projections of self-empathy as an attempt to immerse oneself and feel oneself. Traditionally, Stoicism is presented as a teaching aimed to control emotions that interfere with reason. The typical image of a stoic is a person who, by the power of reason, can curb his/her sinister emotions (fear, malice, anger, aggression), which bring suffering and complicate the manifestation of true human nature. But Stoicism, based on meaningful and valuable modes of human existence, turns out to be much deeper. The famous American philosopher M. Pigliucci (2017) in his book "How to Be a Stoic" refutes the stereotype that Stoics strive to restrain their emotions. Indeed, the main idea of Stoicism is to live according to human nature, which is rational. Perhaps the mind is a much more complex substance than instrumental rationality, given that the concept of "Nus" was understood as Mind or Spirit in antiquity. Reflections on oneself, or the Stoic idea of immersion in oneself, in one's human nature, also contains the world of emotions. Martha Nussbaum (2001) in the well-known work "Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions" rehabilitates the meaning of the sensitive sphere. The American philosopher notes the universal purpose of emotions in intentionality, the phenomenological conditionalism of the rational. This conditionalism is included in a certain picture of the world, which has value coordinates, that is, the intentionality of emotions determines not only the orientation towards a certain object but also makes a person's semantic and ethical choice corresponding to the worldview and axiological level. Thus, the manifestation of emotions and conscious work with them through thinking is an integral condition for the implementation of internal changes in a person on the way to his/her essence.

This context of Stoicism can be added to the expansion of contemporary understandings of emotional intelligence and its importance in the practices of empathy and self-empathy. The research of M. Bourbon (2019) on the involvement of the ideas of Stoicism in modern cognitive practices includes the grounds for the assertion that both empathy and self-empathy as an act of cognition, self-awareness, and the construction of empathic communications have a much broader character than the therapeutic one, which is used to define the purpose of empathy.

Empathy, and especially self-empathy, in this context, is considered not only as a therapeutic practice of overcoming negative states through understanding or self-understanding of the nature of suffering but also as a tool, method, and even a way of revealing the spiritual nature of a person, in which sensuality and rationality reproduce the symbiosis of the spiritual. The spiritual mission of empathy is manifested in the implementation of emotional intelligence, which, based on the awareness of its intro intentionality (recognition and fixation of the subject's state), axiologiness (system definition of the value coordinates) and ontology (fitting into a certain picture of the world, according to the worldview of the subject of empathy) forms the awareness trajectory of a person's self-improvement and the expansion of the quality of his/her life through conceptualization. At the same time, the level of development of emotional intelligence is manifested through emotions, as specifics of subjectivity, with which self-empathy works, creating conditions for awareness of one's own values, the picture of the world, and the realization of the trajectory for improvement as a restoration of true human nature through the search for the most secret and intimate in the depths of the soul. Thus, self-empathy is a process of endless movement into the introverted depths of the human essence.

Through the deep processes of self-empathy, the universal meaning is personified, thanks to which subjectivity is filled with the global. The reproduction of a person's internal potential occurs through the filling of cultural objective experience, according to the system of values and ontological horizons of the worldview. The expansion of subjectivity is carried out through the discovery of the true, unconditioned Self, which is transformed and builds fruitful relationships with oneself, the world of people, nature, and the Universe.

Following the above, I propose an algorithm of self-discovery and transformation of the inner Self in the process of self-empathy:

1. Self-acceptance with sincere interest and maximally objective fixation on one's shortcomings and merits. This is the first stage of awareness and fixation of the Ego at the stage of finding egoism - an important stage of the beginning and determination of the path of selfimprovement. At this stage, verbalization or written fixation in words and concepts for the development state of subjectivity is very important.

2. Entering the phenomenological perspective - phenomenological reduction of a certain state as an object of self-empathy, feeling and awareness of one's own state as an unconditioned given, internal living and direct feeling of oneself. Non-judgemental tracking of internal processes that gave rise to a certain state or emotional-psychological experience.

3. Analysis of the internal causes of a certain state, emotions, feelings, images, and associations accompanying it. Fixation and differentiation of negative and positive states in subjective feeling.

4. Evaluating the results of the analysis with a preliminary definition for the value system of coordinates (egoism - altruism, pragmatism - romanticism, materialism - idealism, etc.)

5. Awareness of shortcomings and virtues, followed by identifying ways to overcome shortcomings or develop virtues.

6. Working with certain states in the conditions of permanent presence - retaining what is internally valuable in the externally effective space. The formation of the skill of sensory presence as a conscious filling with the meaning of everyday actions, the formation of goals and relationships following subjective requests and internal characteristics. Development of sensitive presence through activating emotional intelligence by distinguishing between the essential and the perishable, not getting involved in the insignificant, not wasting oneself on deeds and actions that distract from the essence and true purpose of one's inner self (atopy), keeping the transcendent meaning in everyday actions.

7. Extrapolation of the deep experience of self-empathy as self-knowledge to an empathic attitude towards the Other and building empathic relations with the world.

The presented algorithm can be considered a way of self-empathetic attention to one's inner self in line with Michel Foucault's (2000) concept of "Care of the Self", in which the ethical and ontological aspects in the realization of the spiritual nature of a person are rooted. According to this, self-empathy turns out to be one of the key existences of human beings and the altruistic implementation of empathy when meeting the Other.

Originality

The change of the traditional intersubjective approach in understanding empathy to an introsubjective one and the affirmation of self-empathy as one of the defining existences of human beings was substantiated. This is adjusted by the value scale of altruism-egoism and forms the skills of unconditional empathic action towards the Other as a mode of self-exploration in the spiritual essence of a person.

Conclusions

The concept of "empathy", which was formed within the continental philosophy of the 19th century outlines the disposition of the Self and the Other and the intention of the subject-object union in the state of the Other's experiences. The emergence of the concept of "empathy" expands the meaning of compassion for the experience of the Other and in contrast to sympathy (identity of experiences) and antipathy (non-perception of the experiences of the Other), contributes to the understanding of empathy of the Other, both positive and negative content. The general place of the empathic process is an intersubjective approach as the focus of the interaction between the subject and the object, turned to universalization. The discovery of mirror neurons introduces a neurobiological explanation for the mechanical algorithm of emotional response, without answering the essential question of the meaningful mission of empathy in the realization of the human essence in its spiritual dimension.

To solve this issue, a fundamental change of perspective on the task of empathy is proposed, namely, the transfer of the problem field from the object to the subject of empathy and the internally transformative processes of the subject of empathy through interaction with the object of empathy. Accordingly, empathy is viewed not only from the perspective of an intersubjective approach but also as an intention to enrich the consciousness of the subject of empathy with a new (positive or negative) experience, not experienced directly, which contributes to the expansion of the palette of human qualities. In the process of showing empathy, the primary position of the essential unity of human existence and the desire for spiritual improvement of the subject of empathy is determined. In this connection, the deep manifestation of empathy contributes to the transformation of the vector of the intention of empathic consciousness from intersubjective (I and the Other) to introsubjective (I through the Other). In this perspective of empathy, the object of spiritual tension is not the Other (object), but the subject of empathy, and the subject is the level of his/her spiritual development, which is measured by the altruism- egoism scale.

Empathy as an introsubjective position in self-exploration is inextricably linked to selfempathy, which is meaningfully distinguished from manifestations of compassion for oneself and self-esteem and examined as a state (through self-knowledge) and a trait (through the construction of conscious self-relationships). The three main components of self-empathy: benevolence towards oneself, reflexivity towards one's own experience, and the tendency to understand one's destiny as common to all mankind in mutual integrative implementation form an important regulator of empathic skills, as the potential of their extrapolation to an empathic way of communicating with the Other. Understanding self-empathy as the primary and essential perspective in the realization of empathy contributes to the formation of an anthropological turn to oneself, in which self-empathy is one of the hallmarks of human existence, which is carried out through the development of intuition as self-altruism (the fading of pragmatic interest in the socially conditioned I (Ego)) and immersion in the unconditioned the essential Self (Self as the bearer of the universally spiritual in a person). In this context, self-empathy acts as a construct of emotional intelligence as a way of the personal trajectory of essential self-realization in the context of the metamodern concept of atopy. At the practical level, a phenomenological algorithm of self-discovery and transformation of the inner self in the process of self-empathy is proposed, which forms the skill of altruistic empathy towards other individuals, cultural identities, and the world as a whole.

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