Grammar Mishaps: Sympathy vs. Empathy
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Sympathy vs. Empathy
Sympathy Definitions
Merriam-Webster definition of sympathy: the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another b : the feeling or mental state brought about by such sensitivity <have sympathy for the poor>
Answers.com definition of sympathy: the act or power of sharing the feelings of another; a feeling or an expression of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; compassion or commiseration. Often used in the plural. Synonym: pity
Wikipedia's definition of sympathy: Sympathy is an emotional affinity in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other, and its synonym is pity. Sympathy comes from the Latin sympatha, from Greek: συμπάθεια transliterated as sympatheia, from συν + πάσχω = συμπάσχω literally: to suffer together also: affected by like feelings or emotion. Thus the essence of sympathy is that a person's feelings reflect or are like those of another or that a person suffers as a response to, or because of, another person's suffering.
Sympathy exists when the feelings or emotions of one person give rise to similar feelings in another person, creating a state of shared feeling. In common usage, sympathy is usually the sharing of unhappiness or sufferring, but it can also refer to sharing other (positive) emotions as well. In a broader sense, it can refer to the sharing of political or ideological sentiments, such as in the phrase "a communist sympathiser".
The psychological state of sympathy is closely linked with that of empathy, but is not identical to it. Empathy refers to the ability to perceive and directly experientially feel another person's emotions as they feel them, but makes no statement as to how they are viewed. Sympathy, by contrast, implies a degree of equal feeling, that is, the sympathiser views the matter similarly to how the person themselves does. It thus implies concern, or care or a wish to alleviate negative feelings others are experiencing.
Empathy Definitions
Merriam-Webster's definition of empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner;
Answers.com definition of empathy: identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives; the attribution of one's own feelings to an object; Sympathetic, sad concern for someone in misfortune. Synonym is also pity
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia's definition of empathy: Ability to imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. The empathic actor or singer is one who genuinely feels the part he or she is performing. The spectator of a work of art or the reader of a piece of literature may similarly become involved in what he or she observes or contemplates. The use of empathy was an important part of the psychological counseling technique developed by Carl R. Rodgers.
Wikipedia's definition of empathy: Empathy (from the Greek εμπάθεια, "to suffer with") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize, perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more effectively define another's modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance.
The difference as I see it...
Empathy is a much deeper sense of emotion and a sense that you can feel another's feelings and state of being along with feeling sympathetic to their issue. (Sometimes you can be empathetic and not sympathetic but this isn't as common, e.g., an abuser may understand the feeling of being abused, but still abuses.) Sympathy is a feeling of understanding the issue and wanting to help the one in need. Most of the time empathy and sympathy are used in a sense of sharing unhappy feelings, but the sharing of happy feelings is also possible. Here's an example:
Sympathy:I am sorry for your loss. What can I do to help you during this difficult time?
Empathy: I feel and understand your pain; my grandmother passed away last year as well.
Sympathy: A doctor may feel sympathy and understands a patient's illness and try to alleviate the pain, but she may not feel his/her distress and pain.
Empathy: A cancer support group can empathize with the radiation therapy of a member and understand his/her fear because they have experienced the procedure as well.
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Thanks, Jimmy. I'm nowhere near your number of hubs, but working on it. ;)
Excellent analysis Robin. Your examples were spot on and clear. Regards Jack
Sympathy and empathy are two things the world needs more of. Keep up the good work.
kind regards
Greg
Thanks, Jack...and I agree, Greg. ;)
Congrats on the 100th.
I like the Britannica definition of 'empathy'. I've always thought of empathy as the ability to understand what it's like to be in someone else's shoes and see and feel things the way they do. I can see empathy existing without there being any sympathy for someone. Sympathy, to me, suggests being sorry for someone's plight rather than necessarily understanding it fully.
Thanks, StuartJ. I like your definition and appreciate the comment. ;)
Great explanation - thanks for sharing!
Funny I thought I was already in your fan club but no so I join now :)
Thanks, Marti! Welcome to HubPages!
Thanks, Counterpunch. I always enjoy your hubs!
at last I understand the difference,it used to drive me mad !!!!!!!
Many thanks.....
Now I know how i feel :-) Thank you for this great explanation of a subtle but important difference.
What an interesting hub! For me, sympathy means understanding and also believing a person is justified in their feelings. And for me empathy means sharing that same feeling due to common experience or summat. I like your examples, very good hub!
This discrepancy between the terms 'sympathy' and 'empathy' came up in my psychology class, too.
We determined that, with 'sympathy,' the quality of 'pity' and possibly a lack of base respect is also present. It is still a state of one person staying emotionally separate from someone else, possibly of one person (the sympathetic person) feeling pity for someone else where the sympathetic person values his or herself or his or her capabilities above the person that they pity.
With 'empathy,' there is a situation of one person attempting to feel 'the same as' and on the same level as someone else, sharing what the person feels. Pity is not a quality associated with the presence of someone feeling 'empathetic' toward another person. No 'more than' or 'better than,' no judgement about who has more or less capability, skill or any other human quality.
Typically, a sympathetic person may feel that they need to help the person they have sympathy for, as if that person is 'less than,' 'less capable' than the person who feels sympathetic toward someone else. A person feeling 'empathy' for someone else has a different motivation if they decide to help someone - that is - simply to help ease a burden and to assist someone, even if they are aware that the person may be capable of doing something on his or her own.
An empathetic person will want to assist regardless of the other person's ability.
The Emotional Causes A Blur Of The Two And Causes Uncertainty.
If one looks at the literal definitions the key componets are the diference in "Mental Understanding" and "Actual Alined Experience".
Empathy is the mental understanding => able to know where one is comming from without actual experience.
Sympaty is the actual alined experience => Similarly efected in experience, Beyond just understanding, as in Sypathetic Response.
There might be a bit of a mis-match in your examples and what is defined as Sympathy vs Empathy and my understanding of the two.
You say: "Empathy: I feel and understand your pain; my grandmother passed away last year as well."
Since you will never be able to walk in another person's shoes, your example of your grandmother is sympathetic (going back to your own pain of your grandmother dying). If you were to be empathetic, it could (although this is now giving advice, which is sympathetic) be written as: "I hear you're dealing with some pain from your loss".
Something to think about...
I could very well be wrong, but I feel like you nailed the differences until the examples. You made it seem like empathy was coming from a shared feeling, which is sympathy. You made sympathy appear to be a percieved feeling (empathy) rather than a shared one. That contradiction may be difficult for some people to comprehend.
Thanks, Robin.
I agree with your usage of the two terms, mostly based on etymology. Sym-pathy is a feeling "with," whereas em-pathy is a feeling "in." So to feel within another's suffering implies a familiarity with the experience through something similar enough to form a mutual identification of the experience. For example, nothing irks the depressive more than hearing a sympathizer say, "I understand. I know what it feels like to experience a great disappointment. But I bounced back." Of course the depressive also knows great disappointment and bouncing back, and if that had been the content of the experience, s/he would say so. But to say, "I am going through a time of depression" describes a unique experience that ultimately can be known only to another person who has had that experience. Even sympathetic analysts and therapists armed with text book definitions and knowledge cannot really "understand" depression from the interior.
However . . .! It seems that the medical community has reversed the meaning of the two words so that the literature usually indicates the sympathetic doctor is disabled by suffering with the patient, whereas the empathetic physician is the one who can understand what it is like to be in the condition of the sufferer, yet stand outside of it in order to address it objectively. They've switched around the definition/meaning of the terms, and I'm afraid that grammar mishap is going to prevail.
I disagree."I feel your pain" is Sympathy; "I understand your pain" is Empathy.
Sympathy is an emotional resonance,whereas Empathy is cognitive.
I was in a debate in one of my Crisis Prevention classes around this exact topic. I, for one, disagree with your analysis Robin. Even in your definitions it explains how "sympathy" is an experience shared together. The latin definition is "suffering together". Empathy, in the definitions you discovered, states many times "understanding" and "vicariously experiencing". Latin defines this as suffering "with". We may not have experienced what an individual has been through but we are gaining an understanding toward their situation and therefore sharing their feelings. Therefore I disagree with your examples. Would not sympathy occur when the experience is shared? All of your shared experiences are categorized as empathic. In our work, dealing with emotionally disturbed people, we learn empathic listening and empathic approaches. This is an area of "understanding" and supporting. Not "sympathizing" with them and feeling that pain/hardship together.
Nice. I think you covered this subject well.
Very well said. I've always seen empathy as the ability to put yourself in anothers place but not necessarily having experienced the same thing. Like someone above said, the world needs more sympathy and empathy right now.
This is interesting. Over the past couiple of days, I have been having a discussion with one of my students concerning the difference between the two words (we have been discussing empathetic listening from a Marketing perspective). And, as some have said, I see the difference as being cognitive versus emotionional (experiential). Cognitive referring to empathy and emotional referring to sympathy. In any case, it is easy to see how they can be confused with each other. I also find it interesting how there can be so much discussion about two simple words. I love this language!
Oops! Please forgive my spelling errors! I was trying to get my comments in before my next class starts and didn't proofread! Sorry.
Thanks for an interesting hub. One of my all-time favorite sub-topics in the English language is usage. That's what you're discussing here, rather than grammar, which isn't one of my strong points! As a fascinating old curmudgeon of an English professor once pointed out, English usage is the realm of dictionary makers and high-school English teachers. Usage changes over time, too. Sometimes because words become outmoded (outworded? :) ) and often because people aren't aware of the finer nuances, like in symphathy/empathy.
I think we all have pet usage peeves. My "favorite" is affect/effect. Cheers!
Empathy/Sympathy is a state of being wherein a person experiences to varying degrees the condition and position of another/s as though it was their own. This state or experience may consist of emotional and mental effects upon an individual and not necessarily be a virtue unless acted upon by the will. The distinction between E/S could be described by the state of willingness and readiness of the person to act or intervene in the condition and interest of another should necessity require and opportunity present itself. The qualitative differences between empathy and sympathy could be said to involve the distinction between a mental understanding through observation and the depth of comparison to one’s own experiences and resulting emotional impressions.
There may also be an element of involuntary emotional response vs. volitional involvement through exposure, i.e. mere superficial passing emotion vs. deliberate and willing reflection and consideration upon another’s conditions and the deliberate application of those observations to one’s own circumstances at the expense of one’s own complacency. The voluntary exchanging of one’s own emotional and mental state for another’s, which is decidedly worse in order to relate to the other person’s conditions more readily and the determination to experience them vicariously in so far as is possible as one’s own with the intent to modifying one’s own state thereby.
I am certainly late in coming into this discussion, however, I tonight I was reading a required textbook and in it it gave the definitions of empathy and sympathy. In the reading, I disagreed with the authors, they got it backwards, in my opinion. This is very frustrating as I have encountered many who seem to have the definitions backwards. So, here I am looking up the definitions and not happy with the results. Until this hub. At first I liked what I read. At last! Someone got it right. Then I read the comments and now understand better why there are so many who have it "backwards" as I see it.
An example:
a good friend of mine suffered greatly when her mother died. She was devastated. She and I cried and we were both wrecked. I felt FOR her, as devasted FOR her as I could be, but could only SYMPATHISE with her as my mother was alive. I felt sad and depressed and miserable FOR her.
Recently my own mother died. I was wrecked, devastated, I felt adrift and later, after much time had passed was able to fully understand what my friend had been through when her mother died. Now I was able to EMPATHISE as was she able to EMPATHISE with me when my mom died.
Therein lies the difference as I was taught.
Sympathy: to feel anothers pain without full understanding as you have not experienced their pain fully. "Oh, God I can only imagine the pain and grief you are feeling"
Empathy: to feel anothers pain fully as you can understand it through similar circumstances. Meaning "been there, done that" (not necessarily so coldly). "Oh, God! I'm so sorry for your loss! It's so awful to lose a parent".
Irregardless, I am printing this page to bring to my instructor next week. Lets see what comes of it.
Thanks for that!
working
jimmythejock says:
15 months ago
congratulations on hub 100 Robin looking forward to the next 100.....jimmy