|
Both have similar usage but differ in their emotional meaning.
Contents
1 Emotional differences between sympathy and empathy
2 Origin of the words empathy and sympathy
3 Relation
4 Love-Hate relation
5 Examples of empathy and sympathy
6 Empathy has a communication skill
7 References
Emotional differences between sympathy and empathy
Sympathy essentially implies a feeling of recognition of another's suffering while empathy is actually sharing another's suffering, if only briefly. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes".
Empathy develops into an unspoken understanding and mutual decision making that is unquestioned, and forms the basis of tribal community. Sympathy may be positive or negative, in the sense that it attracts a perceived quality to a perceived self identity, or it gives love and assistance to the unfortunate and needy.
One feels empathy when one has "been there" and sympathy when one hasn't.
Origin of the words empathy and sympathy
Sympathy comes from the Latin sympatha, from transliterated as sympatheia, from literally: to suffer together or "feeling with." Empathy comes from the , transliterated as empatheia, meaning "physical affection, partiality".
The word 'empathy' is a late translation into English from the German 'Einfühlung'. This last word was coined by the philosopher Robert Vischer (1847-1933). Vischer meant by the term something like "aesthetic sympathy."
Relation
Compassion can form a base for both empathy and sympathy, and each may be seen as aspects of wisdom, or the means through which wisdom is synthesized. Sympathy also involves caring, but a compassionate sense of assistance and protection for those who are poor and less fortunate. Empathy is expressed when trying to feel someone else’s feeling who generally is known to you.
Love-Hate relation
Love involves aspects of both empathy and sympathy in its forms. Hatred is the antithesis of both empathy and sympathy. Both sympathy and empathy connote support and nurturing of the growth of others and form a basis of a relationship. While sympathy connects as an emotion, empathy detaches.
Examples of empathy and sympathy
To quote an example here: A man goes to hear a lecture. He may hold the following opinions after the encore.
Empathy: "I understand the writer's empathetic study of the subject."
Sympathy: "I can only sympathize with the writer's total lack of knowledge."
It is possible to be empathetic and not sympathetic at the same time. For example: If a person gambles and loses all his money, you may feel empathetic and try to analyze the reason for doing so but you will not be sympathetic towards him as it is his fault entirely in losing the money. On the other hand, you can both empathize and sympathize at the same point. If someone loses a loved one to a disease, you will feel sympathy for them and, if you have ever lost a loved one yourself, you are likely to empathize with their position.
Empathy has a communication skill
Empathy can be employed as a communication skill. Empathy can allow great communicators to sense the emotions of an audience and is the mutual understanding and inspiration communicated to the audience. A lack of empathy involves a poor sense of communication that fails to understand the perspective of the audience. An audience may feel a positive or negative sympathy to both the communicator and the message as it is transmitted in communication. Empathy can also be found in the artist, musician, and drama, as well as the audience.
References
|