This volume extends the theoretical scope of the important concept of empathy by analysing not only the cultural contexts that foster the generating of empathy, but in focusing also on the limits of pro-social feelings and the mechanisms that lead to its blocking.

Steven E. Aschheim, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Jan Assmann, University of Konstanz, Germany Shelley Berlowitz, University of Konstanz, Germany Fritz Breithaupt, Indiana University, USA Ute Frevert, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA Amos Goldberg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Sophie Oliver, University of London, UK Jacqueline Lo, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australia Jay Winter, Yale University, USA