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| Photo by Anton Croos |
What is the difference between empathy and sympathy?
Empathy - The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Sympathy - Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
From Dictionary.com:
"Both empathy and sympathy are feelings concerning other people. Sympathy is literally 'feeling with' - compassion for or commiseration with another person. Empathy, by contrast, is literally 'feeling into' - the ability to project one's personality into another person and more fully understand that person. Sympathy derives from Latin and Greek words meaning 'having a fellow feeling'. The term empathy originated in psychology (translation of a German term, c. 1903) and has now come to mean the ability to imagine or project oneself into another person's position and experience all the sensations involved in that position. You feel empathy when you've "been there", and sympathy when you haven't."
Empathy is about connection and it takes a certain amount of courage to allow yourself to become that vulnerable. Community is the best way to ease someone else's suffering. Dr Brené Brown reminds us in a powerful 3 minute talk about the transformative power of empathy.
Produced: RSA
Voice: Dr Brené Brown
Animation: Gobblynne
Watch Dr Brené Brown's full talk: "The Power of Vulnerability"
Dr Brené Brown is a research professor who has spent over a decade studying empathy, vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. She's also the best-selling author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.
