Toward empathy: the uses of wonder

How does one begin to approximate the inner experience of another? Empathic exploration demands of the investigator the creative capacity to suspend closure. The founders of phenomenology and psychoanalysis developed methods to facilitate a process of not-concluding, ways of keeping the mind open to new possibilities. Moreover, Husserl's phenomenological reduction and Freud's basic rule of free association bear striking affinities to Keats's formulation of the nature of artistic observation. Keats's quest for the heart of experience illuminates a path through imagination and toward empathy.