LA CONSTRUCTION DE L'EMPATHIE FACE AUX MUTATIONS SOCIALES CONTEMPORAINES : CONSCIENCE, EXPRESSION ET REGULATION EMOTIONNELLES

Abstract This article offers a theoretical contribution which is conceptual, integrative, and model-oriented in nature, in the form of a critical literature review on empathy. Grounded in a psychodynamic perspective and situated at the intersection of phenomenological, existentialist, and structuralist frameworks, it examines the prevailing humanistic challenges across several sub-Saharan African countries. These nations are currently grappling with sociopolitical shifts, marked by instability in countries such as Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Niger, the Congo, and Cameroon, as well as natural disasters, all of which undermine interpersonal and intergroup (as well as intragroup) interactions. The primary objective is to explain how it is constructed and how it can be reconceptualized, not merely as a personality trait, but as an essential emotion and a vital skill for maintaining civil harmony during times of crisis. The aim is to demonstrate how it functions within a framework of intersubjectivity, rooted in the dynamics of our connection to others, as a means of regulating the psychological and physiological distress (such as stress, anxiety, anguish, depression, trauma, panic, addictions, mania, paranoia, etc.) that arises in contexts of social tension. It is developed as an internal capacity for empathy, structured around three developmental emotional competencies: emotional awareness, which emerges in infancy and grows in complexity into adulthood with the acquisition of a "theory of mind"; emotional expression, understood as a logical mode of verbal and non-verbal socio-affective communication; and emotional regulation, defined as a set of intra- and inter-individual processes used to avoid, transform, minimize, or de-intensify emotion. In conclusion, he establishes that a failure of empathy, characterized by a lack of acceptance of others, impaired awareness, and maladaptive coping, lies at the heart of maladjustment. Conversely, emotional empathy serves a homeostatic and anxiolytic function, operating on individual, collective, and contextual levels. It acts as a cathartic catalyst rooted in sharing, reciprocity, and altruistic awareness—a necessary condition for sustaining social cohesion within an anxiety-inducing environment. Keywords Empathysocial changesemotionconsciousnessexpressionregulation