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Nataly

Empathy vs. Sympathy

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So I saw a really interesting video from a psychologist who was talking about Empathy vs. Sympathy... 

A lot of it was delving into semantics, but he was saying that we throw the 2 words around without understanding the "clinical" definition and that technically speaking, despite how we have been using the words, they originally had very different meanings.

In short, he said that:

Sympathy = asking the question "how would *I* feel in that person's situation"

Empathy = asking the question "what does *that* person feel and why"

It's quite a different approach & he was making a case that they pretty much sit at opposite ends of the spectrum and are often even incompatible. 

ie: people who have the sympathetic approach don't actually understand the other person.  And people who actually understand the other person, are less likely to feel sorry for them.

He went into quite a lot of detail & I found it a really fascinating exploration.

 

 

For anyone who is interested the video is quoted below.  It's in French, I'm afraid, but maybe you can activate subtitles in English??  I didn't manage, but I know some of you are far more technically savvy than me!

 

 

 

 

 

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