6/30/2020

Empathy

"The word EMPATHY is derived from the ancient Greek empatheia, which was formed from the words for in and pathos. A century ago, German philosophers borrowed empatheia to create the German word Einfühlung, “feeling into,” which was later translated into the English word empathy. Interpersonal empathy describes the capacity that nearly all of us have to include another being into our awareness in a way that enables us to sense what they might be experiencing physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Empathy, literally taken, is feeling into another, while compassion is feeling for another, accompanied by the aspiration to take action that benefits the other. Empathy is often a precursor to compassion and part of compassion, but it is not compassion. Whereas empathy is a good thing in the right dose, I believe that we cannot overdose on compassion."

- Joan Halifax