What is the difference between empathy and compassion?

Question

Is it possible for a person to literally FEEL the hurt of another within minutes..seconds even? No condescending or sarcastic answers please. Has life ever put you in a position DAILY to care for a stranger? To literally hear their tale...and know it's not a pity party....and to ask God for them to have peace? I'm no Dudley Do-Right..But it seems I've developed a bit of a.....knack for talking to people about the most emotionally paralyzing subjects, and making them smile a bit....

Answer 1

Well, you're a better person than me, for all the time I've spent helping people (as a teacher). I tend to "tune out" when someone goes on too long about their problems, no matter how valid, unless it's my kid.

I'm NOT going to the dictionary...but will wing it and say that empathy IS the ability to "feel" at least some of another's emotion (not always suffering), while compassion is more akin to sympathy: feeling badly for the person, without necessarily knowing what they feel, just sympathy for their circumstances.

People like you are rare...you should become a counselor...but you'd probably be advised to "distance" yourself a bit, or eventually, you could get depressed or inured to your charges' suffering!

Answer 2

Strict dictionary definitions have a hard time separating the feelings of empathy, sympathy, compassion, and pity. Often these words are used to define each other. However research on the concepts has begun to pull them apart. Empathy is considered a mirroring or vicarious experience of another's emotions, whether they be sorrow or joy. Sympathy, on the other hand, is a feeling of sorrow associated specifically with the suffering or need of another. Literally, it is fellow-feeling, and requires a certain degree of equality in situation or circumstances. This is in contrast to pity, which regards its object not only as suffering, but weak, and hence as inferior. Compassion is much like sympathy in that it stems from the suffering of another, but it also includes the need or desire to alleviate suffering.
So you would have to determine that definition for yourself. Everyone has their own definition or idea of it so I guess each one will pretty much mean the same thing but told in different ways.

Answer 3

Well..... sometimes when I look at somebody I can understand how they feel. Like, a feeling that I know how they're feeling, but I can't put words to it.

It's weird.

But then, I'm weird.

It happens only when I'm paying attention to it, so maybe it's my imagination, but I'm usually right.