Drs. Woodruff and Stevens Release New Book

Chad Woodruff, Ph.D., and Larry Stevens, Ph.D., from the Department of Psychological Sciences, served as coeditors for the newly released text The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion.  The 353 page volume contains 11 chapters covering a wide range of contemporary neuroscience research topics within the fields of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion (ECS).

1. What Is This Feeling That I Have for Myself and for Others? Contemporary Perspectives on Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion, and Their Absence
2. The Brain That Feels Into Others: Toward a Neuroscience of Empathy
3. The Brain That Longs to Care for Others: The Current Neuroscience of Compassion
4. The Brain That Longs to Care for Itself: The Current Neuroscience of Self-Compassion
5. Sometimes I get So Mad I Could…: The Neuroscience of Cruelty
6. Reflections of Others and of Self: The Mirror Neuron’s System’s Relationship to Empathy
7. Why Does It Feel So Good to Care for Others and for Myself: Neuroendocrinology and Prosocial Behavior
8. Can We Change our Mind About Caring for Others? The Neuroscience of Systematic Compassion Training
9. Compassion Training from an Early Buddhist Perspective: The Neurological Concomitants of the Brahmaviharas
10. The Language and Structure of Social Cognition: An Integrative Process of Becoming the Other
11. Where Caring for Self and Other Lives in the Brain and How It Can Be Enhanced and Diminished: Observations on the Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion.

The text is largely based on compassion-related research emanating from the National Science Foundation funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program created by Dr. Stevens in 2008 and now coordinated by Dr. Woodruff, as well as a review of current neuroscience literature related to ECS.  The twenty authors contributing to the text come from a variety of countries and institutions, including NAU.  In addition to Drs. Stevens and Woodruff, authors from the Department of Psychological Sciences include Drs. Melissa Birkett-Green and Robert Goodman.  Of note is the fact that authors included former REU interns and students within the NAU Master of Arts in Psychology program, including Jasmine Benjamin, Mark Gauthier-Braham, Paul Plonski, Leah Savery, and Taylor West.

The text is available through Amazon.com and the publisher.

Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 978-0-12-809837-0