Who’s responsible? Our mutual implication in each other’s suffering *

Looking at the way conflicts in accountability and responsibility are lived both within some middle-class white patients and within patient-analyst interactions, this chapter argues that contemporary definitions of empathy normalize the neoliberal repudiation of vulnerability and foster an experience of empathy in which one is able to keep a safe distance from the suffering other. A two-way version of empathy that counters neoliberal trends requires that we examine how we seek refuge in identifications that distance us from vulnerability, and it requires us to recognize the harm we inflict when we do so.