A casual dictionary lookup can sometimes lead to a blog post. Here it is sympathy vs empathy. There is a distinct culture that we try to nurture in our organization, a place where individuals work with people suffering from pain and facing problems in life. This has been there always, right from the beginning of the organization. Today I got two beautiful words to explicitly explain an essential part of the behavioral skill we want our volunteers to be synonymous with. I believe this idea may make sense to a larger audience and hence I decided to post it here.
Let me start with pulling in a table I found here
| Empathy | Sympathy | |
| Definition: | The ability to co-experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or experience of another without them being communicated directly by the individual | The ability to understand and to support the emotional situation or experience of another being with compassion and sensitivity hide |
| Emotion: | Close bonded relationships | Care, Protection hide |
| Relationship: | Friends, Family, Community | Poor and less fortunate hide |
| Relative to: | Caring, Personal Growth Wisdom, | Charity hide |
| Example: | I can empathise with how aggrieved you must be at the loss of your beloved. | I offer my sympathy at the loss of your loved one. |
Actually the information for my post is over. What remains is the discussion.
I would prefer to see people who work with me to be more empathatic than sympathetic. It does not sound like a great idea to me to be sympathetic more often - specially with my brethren. I don't feel comfortable talking pity on someone else's situation. I would rather be a person who has the ability to look at a fellow man and be able to share the feeling the person is going through. I wont want my actions to be directed with a sense of giving, a sense of charity, a sense of helping someone weaker rise. I would rather prefer to see the person's problem in full and take action on the basis of the feeling I get. I would prefer not to see people acting emotionally and involve in sympathizing. I would rather like to see people who keep emotions out as far as possible, indulge in situations, understand what needs to be done and take action - simple steps that are logical - required and meaningful.
Guys, I must admit I am no language guru. I may have got things up side down. I have done very little to be able to justify proclaiming one thing superior to the other. This is just an attempt to try to see that my people, my own people, have more brethren - not just sympathizers.
Comments
That's correct
Thanks a millions :)
I am sure you wanted to say Empathetic and not Emphatic...
Cheers