The Importance of Empathy in Corrective Counseling
The purpose of this study is to investigate of the importance of empathy in Corrective Counseling. This study referred to the importance of empathy in Corrective Counseling by clarifying the fact that Juvenile Delinquency is related to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which originates from the absence of appropriate caring empathy. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is highly correlated to aggression, which can be displayed as juvenile delinquency in adolescents with Narcissistic Personality disorder. Juvenile delinquents commit misconducts as an attempt to compensate their weak and fragile narcissistic personality structure. Juvenile delinquency is an alternative way to overcompensate juvenile delinquents’s lower self-esteem and to recover their damaged self-structure. From the perspective of Kohut’s self-psychology, juvenile delinquents have narcissistic personality disorder with fragile self-structure which is originated from the absence of an appropriate child-rearing. Therefore, during the counseling sessions, the therapist is needed to be a selfobject to strengthen juvenile delinquent’s self-structure. Thus, when the therapist implements corrective counseling for juvenile delinquents, therapists’ empathy is an important element as a selfobject for the client. As a result, this study suggests that it is necessary to actively utilize empathy in corrective counseling for juvenile delinquents. In addition, there is need to develop the program of utilizing empathy for corrective counselor and train corrective counselors to be more empathic to juvenile delinquents.