Below I’ll give you my selections for the best Empathy books by a few categories. I will cover these and other great books more in depth later.
- The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill (2013)
- Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It (2015)
- Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (2018)
- Empathy (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) (2017)
- Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential-and Endangered (2011)
- The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People (2018)
- Empathy Is My Superpower: A Story about Showing You Care (Without Limits) (2018)
- Teach Your Dragon Empathy: Help Your Children Story To Teach Kids Empathy, Compassion and Kindness. (My Dragon Books) (2019)
- You, Me and Empathy: Teaching children about empathy, feelings, kindness, compassion, tolerance and recognising bullying behaviours (2017)
- Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy (2013)
- Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership (2019)
- The Dark Sides of Empathy (2019)
- The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society (2010)
- Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice (2014)
The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill (2013)
What if there were a single skill that could directly and radically improve your relationships and your emotional life? Empathy, teaches Karla McLaren, is that skill.
Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It (2015)
A popular speaker and co-founder of The School of Life, Roman Krznaric has traveled the world researching and lecturing on the subject of empathy. In this lively and engaging book, he argues that our brains are wired for social connection. Empathy, not apathy or self-centeredness, is at the heart of who we are.
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (2018)
New York Post Best Book of 2016We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it.Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society.
Empathy (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) (2017)
Empathy is credited as a factor in improved relationships and even better product development.
Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential-and Endangered (2011)
“Bruce Perry is both a world-class creative scientist and a compassionate therapist.”—Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia Born for Love is the definitive book on empathy. Renowned psychiatrist Bruce Perry has appeared on Oprah, CNN, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and other programs as an expert in this hot area of neuroscience, and has been cited as such in Newsweek, the New York Times, and The New Yorker (in a story written by Malcolm Gladwell).
The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People (2018)
What is the difference between having empathy and being an empath? “Having empathy means our heart goes out to another person in joy or pain,” says Judith Orloff, MD. “But for empaths it goes much further. We actually feel others’ emotions, energy, and physical symptoms in our own bodies, without the usual defenses that most people have.” With The Empath’s Survival Guide, Dr.
Empathy Is My Superpower: A Story about Showing You Care (Without Limits) (2018)
Why does her brother cry when it’s dark? Why does her classmate Kayla take so long to do her math? And what’s up with that strange-smelling dish that Priya brings to lunch every day? With the help of her parents, Amelia soon learns about the importance of empathy and starts to see the power it can have! Will Amelia be able to put her new-found skill to good use and help others find the strength in empathy as well?
Teach Your Dragon Empathy: Help Your Children Story To Teach Kids Empathy, Compassion and Kindness. (My Dragon Books) (2019)
Having a pet dragon is very fun!He can sit, roll over, and play…He can candle a birthday cake, lit a campfire, or so many other cool things…But what if your dragon does not care about other people’s feelings?What if he does and says things to others that he will regret?What should you do?You teach him empathy!
You, Me and Empathy: Teaching children about empathy, feelings, kindness, compassion, tolerance and recognising bullying behaviours (2017)
One of the most important social skills a child can learn is empathy. Being able to understand how another person is feeling and recognizing their needs helps people to connect to one another across race, culture and the diversity that is ever-present and so important to our world.
Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy (2013)
When Emily asks her big sister what the word empathy means, Emily has no idea that knowing the answer will change how she looks at people. But does it really matter to others if Emily notices how they’re feeling? Stand in My Shoes shows kids how easy it is to develop empathy toward those around them. Empathy is the ability to notice what other people feel.
Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership (2019)
Having built his career working with iconic brands and institutions such as General Electric, Google, Nike, Warby Parker, and also The United Nations and the Obama Administration, Michael Ventura offers entrepreneurs and executives a radical new business book and way forward. Empathy is not about being nice. It’s not about pity or sympathy either.
The Dark Sides of Empathy (2019)
Many consider empathy to be the basis of moral action. However, the ability to empathize with others is also a prerequisite for deliberate acts of humiliation and cruelty. In The Dark Sides of Empathy, Fritz Breithaupt contends that people often commit atrocities not out of a failure of empathy but rather as a direct consequence of over-identification and a desire to increase empathy.
The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society (2010)
Are we our brothers’ keepers? Do we have an instinct for compassion? Or are we, as is often assumed, only on earth to serve our own survival and interests?
Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice (2014)
Intellectual Empathy provides a step-by-step method for facilitating discussions of socially divisive issues.
Best Empathy Books that Should be on Your Bookshelf
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some empathy books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
The Spiritual Power of Empathy: Develop Your Intuitive Gifts for Compassionate Connection
Author(s): Cyndi Dale
ID: 2297910, Publisher: Llewellyn Publications, Year: 8 Oct 2014, Size: 3 Mb, Format: epub
White People and Black Lives Matter: Ignorance, Empathy, and Justice
Author(s): Johanna C. Luttrell
ID: 2392999, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 25 July 2019, Size: 559 Kb, Format: epub
The Empathy Advantage: Coaching Children to Be Kind, Respectful, and Successful
Author(s): Lynne Azarchi
ID: 2812262, Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Year: 2021, Size: 3 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not definite. Some books are absolutely best-sellers according to USA Today, others are composed by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.