Human empathy of automatic vs. reflective origin: Diverse attributes and regulative consequences

The neurobiological model of the emotional brain, developed by Joseph LeDoux, seems to help introduce some orderly structure to the construct of empathy. The article refers to the description of two roads of impulses to the amygdala, which enable the arousing of primary and secondary emotions. Its purpose is to differentiate between (primarily) automatic vs. reflective origin of cognitive and emotional attributes of empathy and provide characterisation of prototypic attributes of both empathy facets. Special emphasis is put on the specificity of empathy of a reflective origin. The article posits that the very source of syntony and a feeling of closeness is the confrontation of the analysed situation of a given person with verbalised standards of good and evil. The type of consequence of reflective empathy depends on whether the Self or beyond-Self standards have been activated and whether good is perceived from ones own perspective or that of another person.