Gross Empathic Function (GEF) Index

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Roland Y. Kim, Ph.D.

Founder, Gross Empathic Function (GEF) Index, Silent Trauma Institute, Empathic Parenting Center
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology • Developmental Theorist • Author

Dr. Roland Y. Kim is the creator of the Gross Empathic Function (GEF) Index, the world’s first measurement system designed to assess a society’s collective emotional maturity—its ability to transform fear into safety, conflict into connection, and suffering into healing.

As a developmental theorist, and researcher of socio-cultural evolution, Dr. Kim has spent decades studying why individuals, families, and entire societies succeed or fail emotionally. His work reveals a simple truth: human civilization advances not only through technology or economics, but through empathy.

A Life Dedicated to Understanding Emotional Civilization

Across his career, Dr. Kim worked in clinical settings with children, adults, and families experiencing deep trauma, relational wounds, and developmental challenges. Over thousands of clinical encounters, he witnessed how early emotional experiences—especially silent forms of trauma—shape lifelong patterns of connection, conflict, fear, and resilience.

But he also saw these same patterns mirrored in nations, institutions, communities, and political systems.
Countries, like people, could become:

    • anxious and fearful

    • angry and aggressive

    • rigid and controlling

    • detached and polarized

    • or mature, empathic, and collaborative

This insight led him to develop the Five-Stage Civilization Model, a developmental map of societal emotional growth, documented in his published books The Five Stages of Civilization and Toward a Mature Society: A Psycho-Cultural Blueprint.

Why GEF Was Created

Dr. Kim realized that societies measure everything except the one thing that determines their long-term survival: empathic function.

We have GDP to measure economic growth.
We have HDI to measure human development.
We have democracy indices and governance indices.

But no index existed to measure collective empathy, trauma awareness, institutional attunement, or emotional intelligence in public life.

So Dr. Kim created the Gross Empathic Function (GEF) Index to fill this critical gap.

GEF evaluates how well a society supports:

    • emotional safety

    • dignity and fairness

    • restorative and trauma-informed justice

    • empathic leadership

    • healthy child development

    • reflective public dialogue

    • inclusion of all people

    • responsible and compassionate media

    • everyday interpersonal kindness

It is the emotional equivalent of GDP—designed for the future of civilization.

A Unique Interdisciplinary Background

Dr. Kim’s expertise spans fields rarely integrated in one scholar:

    • Clinical psychology (Ph.D.)

    • Psychoanalysis & object relations

    • Developmental and trauma psychology

    • Cross-cultural and political psychology

    • Graduate-level economics training at UCLA

This combination allows him to connect:

    • the inner world of individuals

    • the relational world of families

    • the emotional climate of institutions

    • and the developmental trajectory of entire civilizations

into a single coherent framework.

Roland Kim’s books include:

  • The Five Stages of Civilization (Vol. I & II)

  • Silent Trauma and the Architecture of Evil (Coming Soon)

  • Unearthing and Overcoming Childhood Silent Trauma (Public and Academic Edition)

  • The Anti-Suicide & Homicide Manifesto (Published in public edition)

  • Extended Family Co-Parenting (Republishing Soon with an Update)

  • Empathic Connections: Avoiding Digital Age Parenting Pitfalls (Published in public and academic Edition)

  • The Empathy Infrastructure (Coming Soon)

His interdisciplinary background—combining economics, psychology, psychoanalysis, and trauma research—forms the backbone of the GEF Index and the Empathy Infrastructure System.

A Vision for Humanity’s Next Stage

Dr. Kim believes that the defining challenge of our century is not technological advancement, but emotional evolution.
His mission is to help societies grow into Stage 5—Empathy and Integration, where institutions function like wise, attuned caregivers and where citizens feel safe, respected, and connected.

The GEF Index provides the roadmap.

Today

Dr. Kim leads the GEF research initiative, develops the GEF scale, collaborates with interdisciplinary scholars, and continues to write books on trauma, empathy, parenting, and civilization.

He is committed to helping societies heal from silent trauma, build empathic systems, and prepare for the next stage of human development.

 

“Empathy is not a soft skill.
 It is civilization’s most powerful survival skill.”


 — Roland Y. Kim, Ph.D.