Robert Vischer

German philosopher (1847-1933) who coined the term "Einfühlung" (esthetic sympathy, later translated in English as empathy), which was to be promoted by Theodor Lipps, Freud's admired philosopher.

Vischer’s use of Einfühlung

Vischer’s use of "Einfühlung" (“in-feeling” or “feeling-into”) in his doctoral thesis ("On the Optical Sense of Form: A Contribution to Aesthetics"--1873) was the first mention of this word in this form in print. His more-famous father, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, had used the term "Einfühlen" in explorations of Idealism relative to architectural form, and related concepts were certainly already in the air. Indeed, the phrase "sich einfühlen" was used by Herder in the 1700's. None the less, Robert Vischer’s exploration was the first significant discussion of the concept of "Einfühlung" under that precise name. [Mallgrave and Ikonomou, “Introduction,” In "Empathy, Form, and Space: Problems in German Aesthetics, 1873-1893" (Santa Monica, 1994), 1-85.]

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