The Definition of Empathy

If you’d like to see the full definition offered by the paper, here it is:

an emotional response (affective), dependent upon the interaction between trait capacities and state influences. Empathic processes are automatically elicited but are also shaped by top-down control processes. The resulting emotion is similar to one’s perception (directly experienced or imagined) and understanding (cognitive empathy) of the stimulus emotion, with recognition that the source of the emotion is not one’s own.

What a hot mess of an answer, my god. The people that wrote their answers in the stories were so much clearer and more understandable. The importance of understanding, of contextualizing, of holding space, and of seeing another’s perspective were all mentioned.

My current working definition of Empathy is an Intentional Embodied Mimicry Process. Empathy is a process, and not an emotion in itself. And some people can put a lot of effort into that process, or they can put just a little. It’s embodied because we don’t just conceptualize what others are going through; the process of empathizing is really felt, in the body. I sometimes ask people when I’m trying to empathize with them where they feel what they feel, so that I can try to locate it in my body as well, which is where Mimicry comes in. Mimicry has a negative connotation sometimes, but I’m thinking more in terms of the importance of mimicry in our lives. We don’t learn things on our own. We see what others are doing and then we try our best to copy. Monkey see, monkey do. I sometimes think of method actors who really try to get as deep into their role as possible. Great acting is deeply empathetic.

[enyewox]

My understanding is, that eg in a situation when your friend tells you how somebody disrespected him and he/she made a huge scene, Sympatizing is being aware that the friend got very offended, understanding why they got offended and understanding why they chose to made a scene about it. Empathy is when hearing the story you unconciously relive the story as it is being told to you and you develope your own feelings to the situation that is being described to you and you thus know how you yourself would react in that situation.

[matthewzarit]

I've always defined it: Sympathy-I'm sorry for you. Empathy-I feel your pain.

[sangzzikun]

hello Simon whats the wood srick you burn while you write? There is something oddly satisfying and I want to try out myself. 😊

[rcoimbra]

I agree it is something that can facilitate our self-development and bring quality to our interpersonal relationships... but in the end, you refer that the questioning, and the curiosity, and internal mimic of the other, and you refer these traits as empathy, and with this I do not agree with you, because you can put many questions to another person and have curiosity for the "world" of the other person and still you can be practicing sympathy and not empathy. Empathy implies that at least 2 subjects are communicating well, and that the subjects is understanding and connecting, and also it is not a simple mimic or imitation of the other person. When in empathy one must put its own subject in a place where it doesn't interfere and corrupt the ability to really be feeling and thinking as the other person's universe, so for this, it is a difficult art and attitude. We easily contaminate this universe of the other with your own self projection and emotional exchange, so, while always being alert and fine-tuning communication so that one makes sure one is understanding the other with its differences, and not reducing the differences to the same that is yourself ... really hard to always be in an empathetic configuration because you would always be putting your own self in a kind of off mode, to be able to really feel the world of the other... for instance, if the other person is suffering you will also feel that suffering and many times people do not go deeper in a relationship because one automatically tends to reject pain and suffering... thanks for making me think on these ideas...

[jane-swj]

So the concept of empathy came about at around the same time as women's right... funny that.