Encounters: empathy and intersubjectivity in the first year of life

Authors

  • Vera Silvia Raad Bussab Universidade de São Paulo; Instituto de Psicologia; do Departamento de Psicologia Experimental
  • Maria Isabel Pedrosa Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
  • Ana Maria Almeida Carvalho Universidade de São Paulo; Instituto de Psicologia; do Departamento de Psicologia Experimental

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-65642007000200007

Keywords:

Empathy, Intersubjectivity, Imitation, Infants, Human development

Abstract

The observation of a caretaking episode among two children aged 9 and 18 months has launched a reflection on the ontogeny of empathy. In this paper, this episode is described and some theoretical questions it evoked are raised, regarding conceptions about children and development, ontogeny of communication and cultural life. Subsequently, the literature on socio-affective and cognitive development in the first year of life is reviewed from the psychoethological and socioconstructivist perspectives, placing some emphasis on Henri Wallons contribution. Three concepts are highlighted: intersubjectivity, empathy and imitation. This literature depicts the human neonate as an organism which is biologically organized for socio-cultural life since birth, or even from the moment of conception, through its pre-adaptedness for encounters with other human beings and for social exchanges, which are constitutive conditions of individual development.

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Published

2007-06-01

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Original Articles

License

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How to Cite

Encounters: empathy and intersubjectivity in the first year of life. (2007). Psicologia USP, 18(2), 99-133. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-65642007000200007