Empathy is most often defined by the
metaphors of 'standing in someone else's shoes' or 'seeing through
someone else's eyes'. After combining and synthesizing the different
ways the word is used, here are the four basic aspects of empathy that I
have come up with;
1. Self-Empathy
(Mindfulness-sensory awareness of our own internal feelings and
internal state. Turning your attention inwards. Listening to ones own
inner feelings and experiences. Self-awareness and self-knowledge. Meditation, for example, is a good way
to foster self-empathy).
2. Mirrored Empathy
(This is also called emotional or affective empathy. Emotional
empathy of others via mirror neurons - reflecting others in ourselves
and ourselves being reflected by others).
3. Cognitive Empathy
(Perspective and role taking of others. This might be better named
Imaginative Empathy.).
How does compassion relate to empathy? We can
empathize with all the different feelings that someone may have; joy,
sadness, caring, fear, loneliness, creativity, connection, grief,
excitement, boredom, pain, suffering, etc etc. Compassion is the
name applied to what happens when we empathize with pain and suffering.
It follows the same process as empathy. So compassion is a subset of the
empathic process, it's empathy applied to suffering.
Self-Compassion,
Mirrored Compassion
Cognitive Compassion
Compassionate Action. - the desire and action to alleviate the
suffering, often with consoling.
Scholars who study empathy have come up with at
least 8 ways that the word is used. 8 Definitions of Empathy (from The Social Neuroscience of Empathy,
These Things Called
Empathy,
Daniel Batson)
"The term empathy is currently applied to more than a half-dozen
phenomena."
1. Knowing another persons internal state,
Including thoughts and feelings
2. Adopting the posture or matching the neural
responses of an observed other
3. Coming to feel as another person feels
4. Intuiting or projecting oneself into
another's situation
5. Imagining how another is thinking and
feeling
6. Imagining how one would think and
feel in the other's place
7. Feeling distress at witnessing
another person's suffering
8. Feeling for another person who is
suffering (empathic concern) An other-oriented emotional response
elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of someone in need.
Includes feeling sympathy, compassion, tenderness and the like (i.e.
feeling for the other, and not feeling as the other)
A definition by Frans De Waal author of 'The Age of Empathy' What
exactly is empathy?
Empathy: The capacity to
a) be affected
by and share the emotional state of another,
b) assess the reasons for the
other's state, and
c) identify with the other, adopting his or her perspective.
This definition extends beyond what exists in many animals, but I employ the
term "empathy" even if only the first criterion is met as I believe all of these
elements are evolutionarily connected....more.
Compassion & Empathy at
Greater Good Science Center Wiki
"Strict dictionary definitions have a hard time separating the
feelings of empathy, sympathy, compassion, and pity. Often these words are used
to define each other. However research on the concepts has begun to pull them
apart.
Empathy is considered a mirroring or vicarious
experience of another's emotions, whether they be sorrow or joy.
Sympathy on the other hand, is a feeling of sorrow
associated specifically with the suffering or need of another. These
are examples of fellow-feeling, and they require a certain degree of
equality in situation or circumstances.
Pity which regards
its object not only as suffering, but weak, and hence as inferior.
Compassion is much like sympathy in that it
stems from the suffering of another, but it also includes the need or
desire to alleviate suffering" (Eisenberg,
2002).
Marshall
Rosenberg: "Empathy, I would say is presence. Pure presence to what is alive in
a person at this moment, bringing nothing in from the past. The more you know a
person, the harder empathy is. The more you have studied psychology, the harder
empathy really is. Because you can bring no thinking in from the past. If you
surf, you'd be better at empathy because you will have built into your body what
it is about. Being present and getting in with the energy that is coming through
you in the present. It is not a mental understanding."
Question: "Is it speaking from the heart?"
Rosenberg: "What? Empathy? In empathy, you don't speak at all. You speak with
the eyes. You speak with the body. If you say any words at all, it's because you
are not sure you are with the person. So you may say some words. But the words
are not empathy. Empathy is when the other person feels the connection to with
what's alive in you."
The Terms of Empathy What does "empathy" mean exactly, and how
is it different from sympathy or other emotional experiences? Some
scientists differ in how they use the term. Below is a list of
definitions of empathy and related terms
1. cognitive empathy. “This is about being able to
understand how the other person thinks. Leaders who are good at this are
able to express things in a way that impacts people, that reaches people
effectively.
Wikipedia.org Empathy is the capacity to
recognize or understand another's state of mind or
emotion. It
is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or
to in some way experience the outlook or emotions of another being within
oneself. Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, or
empathic concern because this capacity can be present in context of
compassionate or cruel behavior... (extensive article)
Vocabulary.com
an understanding of and identification with the emotions of another person
Both empathy and the related word sympathy come from the Greek word pathos,
"emotion." To say you empathize with someone is to say you feel their pain or
emotions. If you are empathetic, you "put yourself in someone's place" and try
to understand exactly how they feel. As Atticus Finch said in To Kill a Mocking
Bird, "You don't truly know a man unless you have walked a mile in his shoes."
That is empathy.
- Because she was once destitute herself, she has great empathy for the
homeless. (compassion, sympathy)
- As a nurse, she does more than offer medical care; she provides empathy and
comfort as well. (understanding, compassion)
- Experiencing the death of a close friend has allowed me to be more empathetic
with other grieving people. (understanding) adjective
- He seems like a cold and heartless man; he has no empathy for others.
(compassion, sympathy)
Encarta.msn.com 1. understanding of another's feelings: the
ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties 2. attribution of feelings to an object: the
transfer of somebody's own feelings and emotions to an object such as a painting
Merriam-webster.com
Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathēs emotional,
from em- + pathos feelings, emotion - more at
pathos
Date:1850
1: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the
object appears to be infused with it
2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and
vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of
either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience
fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner ; also : the capacity for
this
Wiktionary.org
Etymology: A twentieth-century borrowing of Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia),
literally passion (formed from εν- en-, in, at + πάθος pathos feeling),
coined by Rudolf Lotze to translate German Einfühlung. The modern Greek word
εμπάθεια has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice
against someone.
Empathy
1. the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of
another person
2. capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such
understanding
Britannica.com
the ability to imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's
feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. It is a term coined in the early 20th
century, equivalent to the German Einfühlung and modeled on "sympathy." The term
is used with special (but not exclusive) reference to aesthetic experience. The
most obvious example, perhaps, is that of the actor or singer who genuinely
feels the part he is performing. With other works of art, a spectator may, by a
kind of introjection, feel himself involved in what he observes or contemplates.
The use of empathy is an important part of the counseling technique developed by
the American psychologist Carl Rogers.
Infoplease.com
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the
feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art,
feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting
becomes a mirror of the self. Origin: 1900-05; < Gk
empátheia affection, equiv. to
em-
em-2+ path-
(base of páschein to suffer) +
-eia
-ia; present meaning translates German -
Einfühlung
Encarta.msn.com
1. understanding of another's feelings: the ability to identify with and
understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties
2. attribution of feelings to an object: the transfer of somebody's own feelings
and emotions to an object such as a painting
Bartleby.com
Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the
point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a
pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.
Allwords.com
1. the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of
another person
2. capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such
understanding
Etymology: A twentieth-century borrowing of Ancient Greek á (empatheia),
literally "passion" (formed from - en-, "in, at" + pathos "feeling"), coined by
w:Rudolf Lotze, Rudolf Lotze to translate German Einfíhlung. The modern Greek
word has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice
against someone.
Etymonline.com
1903, translation of Ger. Einfühlung (from
ein "in" + Fühlung
"feeling"), coined 1858 by Ger. philosopher Rudolf Lotze (1817-81) from Gk.
empatheia "passion," from en-
"in" + pathos "feeling" (see
pathos). A term from a theory of art appreciation.
Empathize (v.) was coined 1924; empathic
(adj.) is from 1909.
EMPATHIEA-"Empathy literally means the power of understanding things outside
ourselves after the Greek empatheia, but has come to imply a reliance on inner
feeling"
feeling into another individuals emotional state (einfuhlung)" Lipps 1903
-
"empathy involves resonating with other peoples unconscious affect" - feeling
vibrations?
On Empathy: By: Dr. Sam
Vaknin -
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1999 edition) defines empathy as:
"The ability to imagine oneself in an other's place and understand the other's
feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. It is a term coined in the early 20th
century, equivalent to the German Einfühlung and modeled on "sympathy." The
term is used with special (but not exclusive) reference to aesthetic experience.
The most obvious example, perhaps, is that of the actor or singer who genuinely
feels the part he is performing. With other works of art, a spectator may, by a
kind of introjection, feel himself involved in what he observes or contemplates.
The use of empathy is an important part of the counseling technique developed
by the American psychologist Carl Rogers."
The first quality is empathy. Many people believe that this is the single
quality which is most important in all forms of therapeutic listening. It means
getting inside the world of the person who comes for therapy (usually called the
client, though some people not in this group prefer other words such as patient
or consulter) so that that person feels accepted and understood. Two things are
important about this:
(1) that the empathy be accurate, and
(2) that the empathy be made known to the client.
Both of these are learnable skills, and they do make a huge difference to the
relationship between client and counselor or therapist.
The second quality is genuineness. If empathy is about listening to the
client, genuineness is about listening to myself - really tuning in to myself
and being aware of all that is going on inside myself. It means being open to my
own experience, not shutting off any of it. And again it means letting this out
in such a way that the client can get the benefit of it. Genuineness is harder
than empathy because it implies a lot of self-knowledge, which can really only
be obtained by going through one's own therapy in quite a full and deep way. It
is only a fully-functioning person (Rogers' word for the person who has
completed at least the major part of their therapy) who can be totally genuine.
The third quality is non-possessive warmth. It means that the client can
feel received in a human way, which is not threatening. In such an atmosphere
trust can develop, and the person can feel able to open up to their own
experiences and their own feelings.
EARLY DEFINITIONS: The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive
the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional
components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but
without ever losing the "as if" condition. Thus it means to sense the hurt or
the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive the causes thereof as he
perceives them, but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if I were
hurt or pleased and so forth. If this "as if" quality is lost, then the state is
one of identification. (pp. 210—211. See also Rogers, 1957.)
A CURRENT DEFINITION: With this conceptual background, let me attempt a
description of empathy that would seem satisfactory to me today. I would no
longer be terming it a "state of empathy," because I believe it to be a process,
rather than a state. Perhaps I can capture that quality.
An empathic way of being with another person has several facets. It means
entering the private perceptual world of the other and becoming thoroughly at
home in it. It involves being sensitive, moment by moment, to the changing felt
meanings which flow in this other person, to the fear or rage or tenderness or
confusion or whatever that he or she is experiencing. It means temporarily
living in the other's life, moving about in it delicately without making
judgements; it means sensing meanings of which he or she is scarcely aware, but
not trying to uncover totally unconscious feelings, since this would he too
threatening. It includes communicating your sensings of the person's world as
you look with fresh and unfrightened eyes at elements of which he or she is
fearful. It means frequently checking with the person as to the accuracy of your
sensings, and being guided by the responses you receive. You are a confident
companion to the person in his or her inner world. By pointing to the possible
meanings in the flow of another person's experiencing, you help the other to
focus on this useful type of referent, to experience the meanings more fully,
and to move forward in the experiencing.
To be with another in this way means that for the time being, you lay aside your
own views and values in order to enter another's world without prejudice. In
some sense it means that you lay aside your self; this can only be done by
persons who are secure enough in themselves that they know they will not get
lost in what may turn out to be the strange or bizarre world of the other, and
that they can comfortably return to their own world when they wish.
Perhaps this description makes clear that being empathic is a complex,
demanding, and strong - yet also a subtle and gentle - way of being.
To perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy
and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one
were the person, but without ever losing the "as if" condition. Thus, it means
to sense the hurt or the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive
the causes thereof as he perceives them, but without ever losing the
recognition that it is as if I were hurt or pleased and so forth.
Empathy
is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of
offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and
to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to
empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.
In nonviolent communication, no matter what words
others may use to express themselves, we simply listen for their observations,
feelings, needs, and requests. Then we may wish to reflect back, paraphrasing
what we have understood. We stay with empathy, allowing others the opportunity
to fully express themselves before we turn our attention to solutions or
requests for relief.
We need empathy to give empathy.
When we sense ourselves being defensive or unable to empathize, we need to (A)
stop, breathe, give ourselves empathy, (B) screamed nonviolently, or (C) take
time out."
The capacity to know emotionally what another is experiencing from
within the frame of reference of that other person, the capacity to sample the
feelings of another or to put oneself in another's shoes. D. M. Berger
A sense of similarity in feelings experienced by the self and the
other, without confusion between the two individuals.Jean
Decety
An affective response that stems from the apprehension or
comprehension of another's emotional state or condition, and that is similar
to what the other person is feeling or would be expected to feel. Nancy Eisenberg
To empathize means to share, to experience the feelings of
another person. R. R. Greenson
The ability to put oneself into the mental shoes of another
person to understand her emotions and feelings. Alvin Goldman
An affective response more appropriate to another's situation than
one's own.
Martin Hoffman
A complex form of psychological inference in which observation, memory,
knowledge, and reasoning are combined to yield insights into the thoughts and
feelings of others. William Ickes
Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life
of another person.
Heinz
Kohut
Empathy involves the inner experience of sharing in and comprehending
the momentary psychological state of another person.
Roy
Schafer
"We recognize others as empathic when we feel that they have accurately
acted on or somehow acknowledged in stated or unstated fashion our values or
motivations, our knowledge, and our skills or competence, but especially as
they appear to recognize the significance of our actions in a manner that we
can tolerate their being recognized."
Wynn Schwartz
Empathy is the experience of foreign consciousness in general.
Edith
Stein
In popular usage the idea refers to the emotional resonance
between two people, when, like strings tuned to the same frequency, each
responds in perfect sympathy to the other and each reinforces the responses of the
other. A good example of this occurs in the statement: "Aleatoric concert
music, like jazz, demands a strong empathy between performer and listener"
(Houkom,
p. 10).
Empathy is about spontaneously and naturally tuning into the
other person's thoughts and feelings, whatever these might be [...]There are
two major elements to empathy. The first is the cognitive component:
Understanding the others feelings and the ability to take their perspective
[...] the second element to empathy is the affective component. This is an
observers appropriate emotional response to another person's emotional state.
Simon
Baron-Cohen (2003):
"[Empathy] is what happens to us when we leave our own
bodies...and find ourselves either momentarily or for a longer period of time
in the mind of the other. We observe reality through her eyes, feel her
emotions, share in her pain.."
Khen
Lampert (2005):
