Empathy

The word empathy is derived from two Greek words, empátheia (affection) and páschein (to suffer); based on these origins, the term refers to recognition of someone else’s pain or distress. There is a useful distinction between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is the emotion of pity or feeling sorry for someone else while empathy relies on higher levels of emotional identification with and understanding of difficulties and suffering experienced by others. Contemporary definitions of empathy have taken it a step further by linking it to positive action; therefore, what counts as evidence of empathy is compassionate action intended to support the person in distress. Furthermore, genuine empathy relies on emotion regulation to some extent because, in order to truly help someone else, the empathic person has ...