Empathy: 'It Won T Stop Then We Talk'

The importance of empathy in any helping profession, medical or social, cannot be overstated. The workers that exemplified it in their practice did the best that they could with their limited resources.

In the second chapter of her book, “The Empathy Diaries” Sherry Turkle argues that people are fleeing or running from normal conversation. She also states that even though we want to be with each other, we also want to be able to disconnect with reality and connect somewhere else. She claims “What we value most is control over where we put our attention” (19). We want to be close but not that far away, but just right. The writer acknowledges that our phones give us a sense of “companionship” without having to deal with the demands of an actual relationship. With that being said, even our conversations are being impacted by our phones. The writer even states that, “even the mere presence of a phone on a table (even a phone turned off) changes

¨As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, it is necessary to maintain our principles. We can't allow ourselves to be satisfied with empty gestures that make us feel better about ourselves without eliciting any actual change. Empathy is an important part of the process, but empathy is useless without

Compassion and empathy are two different emotions that humans can have for other people. Sometimes one does not always recognize the difference between these two emotions. Ascher and Quindlen convey the importance of having a place to call “home,” and to illustrate how homeless people are individual’s who need compassion shown towards them by the human race.

Empathy gives us as clinicians the ability to understand and connect with the client’s emotions. By building a relationship with a client it gives the clinician a better perspective of the client’s thoughts and feelings. Emotions are not something you can leave at the door and pick up later, it reflects on the individual’s performance. By simply asking how their day is going can create a conversation, this way the client can express themselves and not keep their emotions bottled up. Empathy can be cognitive or emotionally based. Cognitive empathy is being able to know what another person feels and what he/she might be thinking.

As always, it was an honor to represent Pakistan at today's lunch with Dr. Michael Spezio. The lunch was preceded by Dr. Spezio's lecture entitled "Is Empathy Good?: Interdisciplinary Engagement with Cognitive, Decision and Affective Neuroscience." Dr. Spezio holds a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a PhD in Biochemistry from Cornell University and another PhD in cognitive systems neuroscience from University of Oregon. The lecture was hosted by the Stead Center at Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Dr. Naomi Head offers fascinating insight into the role of empathy in conflict transformation. Despite the colloquial definition of empathy as being a positive way to understand, connect with, and help others, Head suggests that empathy is a much more complicated and diverse faculty. She explains that empathy involves four components: imagining one’s self-perspective, imagining another’s perspective, emotion-matching and empathic concern. These four facets can be reduced into two general domains: cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Using this conceptual framework, Head points out that it is possible to employ one of these domains without the other, such as exercising cognitive empathy without the emotional aspect (Head presentation May

People in our society from all around the world have a wonderful gift of being able to understand each other’s feelings at a personal level. Empathy can be described in many different ways, but is hard to put into words what it all entails. Understanding how a person feels is just the surface of empathy. Empathy varies from person to person, and each person may describe it differently. Without a doubt, empathy is a vital part of society and it is important for people to be educated and truly understand and practice acting in empathetic ways. It takes personal experiences, research studies, and spiritual beliefs for empathy to be properly described.

In the healthcare field, empathy is an essential trait. Without empathy, patients can get depressed and lose sight of their end goal. The image above illustrates how a patient is treated with facial expression of the individuals and cropping of the image. “The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy," (Streep). Empathy is, in fact, so powerful that it has given strength to the weak and lack of empathy has weakened the strong. In a world full of blatant good versus evil and where terror and conflict are unceasing, one must remain empathetic.

Healthcare leaders are focusing on people by attracting, engaging developing and retaining the world’s best personnel in building a quality patient center care organization. In viewing “real people,’ it is not only important to understand what they go through as our patients it more important to empathize and recognize their concerns when encountering adverse situations and by setting precedence limit these experiences by instituting a commitment to creating an atmosphere of tranquility. However, how do we start to figure out all our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats Module 6 (2017), of course in the way of providing annual educational training for the staff in empathy, teaching on understanding the emotional needs of our patients as well as the physical, need.

Empathy is a part of my every day life at work. I recently had a patient that was being treated for an abscess caused by drug addiction. The addictive mindset of a patient is not one I can have sympathy for, but can have empathy for. I cannot imagine the sequence of events that lead them to their choices, but on the other hand I am able to place myself in their current situation of, being treated in the hospital for addiction, and recognize how painful it must be to be in their shoes both emotionally and physically. Knowing how I would feel in their situation and the thoughts that would go through my mind enhance my ability to care for these patients.

While reading chapter four, the term “empathy” caught my eye and a sparkle appeared because I tend to experience the world from others point of view. The saying, “treat others how you would like to be treated” is implanted in my brain from when I was a child. Which has helped me overcome obstacles in my adult years. I will illustrate two incidents in my life where empathy plays a major role.

Empathy is the ability to understand and experience the feelings of others, particularly others’ suffering. Humanity’s gift of understanding complex emotions ushers in a new way of understanding ourselves and how we react to stimuli. This ultimately leads to questioning of everything, leading us to one strong notion: Does empathy guide or hinder moral action?

Empathy is the idea of essentially getting past personal biases and prejudices to interpret someone else’s views (Carnegie, 2013). We are in a global economy and with that comes global interactions. Attempt to understand everyone and establish similarities while respecting differences. Take the time to see the big picture and consider all perceptions (Stinton, 2013).

patients rarely show emotional concerns but when they do, doctors and nurses, particularly doctors, do not see or acknowledge those concerns the patient may be having. Empathy towards the patient can change this, helping doctors and nurses do their job better and more effectively.