”Enlightened Empathy” by Rev. John McFadden Debuts on Amazon
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“Enlightened Empathy” by Rev. John McFadden Debuts on Amazon
New book shows how an uncommon empathy is helping solve even the most difficult personal, local, and national troubles
13 November– San Francisco, CA: Enlightened Empathy: Relief from America’s Turmoil, a new book by Presbyterian minister and Analytic Pastoral Counselor Rev. John McFadden, is now available via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Blending Jesus’s and Freud’s uncannily similar empathy, McFadden takes readers on a personal and professional journey through life’s darkness into the light of compassionately intended reason.
“There’s much talk lately even from academic psychologists that empathy not only can’t solve problems but even makes people behave worse,” says Rev. McFadden. “To counter this dismissive view, he details the real-life transformation stories of ordinary people and even sociopathic criminals and White Supremacists.
He introduces the book with a memoir of his parents’ occasional but damaging brutality against him and his struggle to gain relief from its effects. Readers, he hopes, will be inspired by the help he received from two prominent professionals, one a chaplaincy educator (also a Presbyterian minister) and the other a psychologist who became the leading exponent of the understanding Sigmund Freud created near the end of his life. McFadden’s references to dramatic literature and movies that sparked some of his most effective insights add breadth and relatability. And the high praise of his writings by six psychology professors helps explain why this only masters degree educated person felt emboldened to publish this decidedly iconoclastic book, iconoclastic partly because it challenges America’s commitment to the use of shame and guilt.
McFadden imagines that the transformation stories of sociopaths and White Supremacists give some hope that our national turmoil can be relieved, especially if the organizations that helped those people will be expanded throughout America, much as the Alcoholics Anonymous movement spread. Moreover, McFadden details that these stories also can help teach this powerful kind of empathy to conventionally empathetic leaders like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. His point is to enable all naturally empathic leaders to make speeches that more effectively unite Americans by deeply empathizing with both sides of every threatening conflict.
Those stories also are intended to pave the way for empathetically understanding and containing what McFadden calls “the chief instigator of our current turmoil,” Donald Trump. Strong evidence he collected partly from Trump’s public statements and his relative’s reactions to him is provided to help show that the President is more vulnerable than his “Teflon Don” nickname portends. But this analysis is not just for analysis’s sake. It is argued that a penetrating empathetic view of Trump can enable authoritative people on both sides of the political spectrum to create strategies for better containing him. In light of how unreachable Trump seems, that prospect may seem ludicrous. But, McFadden explains, “The transformations of horribly disturbed people make a beginning case that all of us can be changed, even Trump.”
The core idea: “The explanation is the solution”:
McFadden’s premise is that hidden shame and guilt are what drive destructive behavior, as many professionals believe. And shame-guilt relieving insights can sometimes quickly unlock change in individuals, groups, and even hard-line leaders. The book presents uncommonly sudden turnarounds in empathy-based clinical vignettes (from a violent offender to a panic-stricken patient) that perhaps should be studied to find therapeutic techniques that quicken therapy. And this book expands to community-scale reconciliations (e.g., small group processes for White Supremacists and the increasingly relied on Empathy Circles process), implying how guilt-shame relieving empathy can be policy-relevant, not just sympathetic.
- PART I — Theory & Method: Why reward-punish moralism backfires; how “enlightened empathy” identifies and relieves root shame; a practical “how-to” for change.
- PART II — Individually and Nationally Focused Tools: Field stories of liberals and right-wing extremists reaching détente; proposals for leaders to speak and legislate with empathic precision; applications to militia movements and political rhetoric.
- PART III — Trump Focus: A frank review of public-record allegations of child molestation and a concrete intervention blueprint designed to reduce harm, lower national temperature, and model an empathy-based intervention that may become practical as Trump continues to devolve.
- Epilogue — Justice Reform: A sketch of an empathy-based justice system, restorative practices, and diversion programs that are driving down recidivism, often cutting it by half.
Selected early readers call Enlightened Empathy “important,” “historic,” and “compelling,” noting its unusual ability to speak to believers and atheists alike and its clear, story-rich prose that moves from living rooms to courtrooms to the public square.
About the Author: Rev. John McFadden:
Rev. John McFadden earned a B.A. in Psychology (Elmhurst College, 1965) and a Master of Divinity (Perkins School of Theology, SMU, 1969). He received Advanced standing from the Association of Clinical Pastoral Educators (1970), was ordained by the Presbytery of the Redwoods (1971), and licensed by the State of California as a Marriage & Family Therapist. His career spans service as a houseparent in a boys’ reformatory, Child Protective Services worker, California Youth Authority parole agent, social worker, hospital and prison-camp chaplain, and 50 years in private psychotherapy practice. His published work has appeared in APA’s Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice**, Washington Post Health, Journal of Drug Issues, and Tikkun, among others. He previously self-published Empathetic Explanation: Solving the Personal Part of Any Problem and is currently completing an autobiography.
Testimonials:
“With an unusual ability to speak to atheists and believers with equal respect and overarching language, McFadden offers as a catalyst to rescuing us from our personal, social, and even national and international strife. This is an historic effort by a thoughtful author.” — Douglas Wilkins, Speech & Debate Coach
“John points us towards a better way to influence Trump and ultimately affect our own lives. In this book, he beautifully integrates his understanding of theology, moral philosophy, psychology, and psychotherapy with his own tremendous capacity for empathy. We all have a lot to learn from John’s fine work.” — David Isenman, MD, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist
“John, your piece I just read, [Chapter Four in the book] — The Transformation of Two Sociopaths — is worth broad consideration.” — Joan Petersilia, a former faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center and president of the American Society of Criminology
“Brother John’s method for transforming humanity is speculative. But his understanding of people inside makes good enough sense to engage other therapists and moral and legal policy makers in conversation. Enlightened Empathy provides a comprehensive, empathic, practical guide about how to transform conflict and to understand people who seem unreachable.” — Evelin Lindner, PhD, Founding President of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (Dignity Press) and author of Honor, Humiliation, and Terror: An Explosive Mix and How We Can Defuse It
“John’s unique voice is powerful, humble, and polished in its integration of the humanities and social sciences. His interventions into Trump capture the clinical imagination and are compelling and humane.” – Ernie Carpenter, MSW, LCSW, Sonoma County CA Supervisor (California), 1981–1997
Publication details:
Title: Enlightened Empathy: Relief from America’s Turmoil
Author: Rev. John McFadden
Format: Paperback/Kindle (Amazon)
Media & Review Copies:
For interview requests, advance review copies, or to schedule a talk, please contact David Perry & Associates, Inc. at (415) 676-7007 or news@davidperry.com.
