Poetry and Brain: Interfaces for Empathy Development

The word empathy originated among German novelists and its meaning developed through art appreciation and studies in psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and education. One of the ways to promote empathic behavior can occur with the reading of poetry, whose literary format allows the expression of particular aspects of emotions and cognitive skills, facets that encompass the conceptualization of empathy. As an example, neuroimaging studies showed that Shakespeare’s poetry significantly stimulated the left caudate nucleus, the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right inferior temporal gyrus, in addition to brain areas typically activated in language-related tasks. Taking into account that literature, especially in poetic format, has the potential to activate brain areas involved with empathic behavior, the main objective of this study is to understand the way in which the emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy are manifested from literary poetry, highlighting the areas of the brain responsible for this process. The specific objectives intend to explain how the emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy are manifested through poetry and describe the brain areas specifically activated through this literary form. The research is exploratory of the bibliographic type, which consisted of a bibliographical survey, reading, logical organization of data, discussion of the theme and writing, whose method was inductive. Data were collected from the Science Direct database, as well as from university library sites and other academic and scientific repositories. It is suggested that literary poetry can awaken in the reader who is emotionally and cognitively involved with the masterpiece, the ability to deal with complex emotions and develop reflective skills through the activation of specific brain areas related to empathy.

Keywords: Poetry; Brain; Empathy; Cognition; Emotion