I think I've always been very good at "feeling someone else's pain". I think I have a good ability of putting myself in someone else's shoes and, that the extent to which I possibly can, see where the other person is coming from...no...feel what the other person feels.
This, I have always thought was Empathy. I was shocked to find out recently that this is more accurately the description of sympathy. How can this be? I don't understand. Empathy sounds so much more involved...so much more personal.
Eh...I can sympathize with that. I have empathy for what you're going through. Which sounds better? Which would you prefer...that someone merely sympathized with your feelings, or that someone had great empathy for your situation.
The choice is clear. Empathy wins....hands down.
What's that? You're not so sure? Well, mark my words...and no, that's not a Joe Biden pot shot...mark my words, by the end of my lifetime, people will come to know Empathy to be the more deeper sentiment of the Empathy vs. sympathy battle.
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2 comments:
I thought empathy was the actual exercise of actually feeling the same feelings of others and sympathy was more of an understanding and sadness of anothers feelings.
I'll go look it up.
Sympathy
the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.
empathy
the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
I agree with you, I have always thought that empathy was the "larger" of the two, the one that takes more, to actually feel the pain.
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