6 NOVEMBER 2024
Sympathy vs Empathy
“Empathy,” “sympathy,” and “compassion” are important principles in all areas of healthcare.
But what specifically do these terms mean?
How are they related to one another?
What are patients’ perceptions and preferences toward each of them?
What exactly do they mean within the context of healthcare?
Sympathy, empathy, and compassion are closely related terms and are often used interchangeably. But, while there are similarities, there are also differences, and a good understanding is essential.
Definitions:
Sympathy
The sym- in sympathy means “together” or “at the same time” and is the same Greek prefix that one finds in synonym, symmetry, and symposium.
Sympathy has been defined in the healthcare literature as “an emotional reaction of pity toward the misfortune of another, especially those who are perceived as suffering unfairly.”
Empathy
Empathy has been defined as “an ability to understand and accurately acknowledge the feelings of another, leading to an attuned response from the observer.”
Empathy suggests the notion of projection. You have empathy for a person when you can imagine how they might feel based on what you know about that person, despite not having those feelings explicitly communicated.
Types of empathy:
Cognitive empathy: defined as “a detached acknowledgment and understanding of a distressing situation based on a sense of duty,” or “the ability to understand another’s perspective.”
Affective/emotional empathy: which, while containing each of the elements of cognitive empathy, extends to an acknowledgment and understanding of a person’s situation by “feeling with” the person. It is “the ability to physically feel what another person feels.”
Empathisers
Neurological studies have reported that witnessing a person in suffering activates neural pain pathways in the brain of the empathiser.
There are, however, problems associated with empathy in healthcare. Repeated studies have identified a troubling trend, demonstrating the erosion of empathy over the course of healthcare education and clinical practice.
Compassion
“Compassion” means to “suffer with”, and has been defined as “a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.”
Compassion has also been defined as “a virtuous response that seeks to address the suffering and needs of a person through relational understanding and action.”
The Buddhist perspective on sympathy, empathy and compassion is something that we can all aim to achieve in our working lives:
Sympathy can be conceptualised as an emotional reaction, without conscious thought and reflection.
Empathy is understood as a more complex interpersonal construct that involves awareness and intuition.
Compassion is defined as a way to develop the kindness, support, and encouragement.
If you are interested in reading more about medical students’ perspectives on empathy in medicine, you can read the following paper: