The Altruistic Personality by Samuel P. Oliner & Pearl P. Oliner

Author:Samuel P. Oliner & Pearl P. Oliner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press

The rescuer understood the child’s needs for rootedness in continuing relationships, with his sister then and with his mother in the future. He was able to see the world through the eyes and feelings of the child, even though the child himself was unable to articulate this view. The episode is also noteworthy because it did not begin as a result of a direct encounter with the child himself but rather with someone acting on his behalf. The woman making the request did not appear to be a particularly significant figure to the rescuer. She is described neither as a relative nor as a representative of some authoritative group, nor does she provide many details about the child. In this case, direct visible cues were absent, and information alone was sufficient to arouse the rescuer’s empathy. 2

In the case of “Stanislaus” empathic motivations were central and consistent.

Stanislaus was born in 1920 to a poor Polish Roman Catholic family. His mother had come to Warsaw from the countryside, where she worked as a domestic and part-time midwife. His father, who had some high school education, was disabled by an accident when Stanislaus was eight years old and lived on a pension thereafter. He had one brother, four years older than himself. He graduated from high school in 1939 but was unable to resume his studies until after the war, when he completed a degree in the diplomaticconsular department of the Academy of Political Science. During the war, he and his family lived near the Warsaw Ghetto. His helping activities continued over several years:

The gallery of people changed all the time—it comprised several tens of people. Some obtained help in the form of a bowl of soup, others came for temporary shelter during the roundups. Still others, whom I had never met before, came and stayed with us until some other hideout was found.

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