Empathy is an emotional faculty of great importance in our relational and emotional dynamics. The idea of “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” has to do with empathy, but it encompasses a much deeper meaning.
What does empathy mean?
The word “empathy” comes from Greek. pathoswhich refers to the emotional condition of an individual and from the prefix “en”, which means “within”. In that sense, empathy the ability to appropriate, understand, and examine the inner condition of another’s feeling.
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Unlike “sympathy” which has more to do with attunement or sharing feelings, empathy involves an understanding that fully takes the place of the other.
Empathy is a human quality which gives rise to primary emotional ties, for example, one who has a child with his or her primary caregiver, for example, the mother. In this case, the mother carefully identifies, establishes a involvement relationship both with the baby, fully captures your emotions and his relationship with reality of the child.
Empathy is then not only the ability to understand the condition of the other but also to live it with himof assimilate in depth their emotional, social, historical state and all those phenomena that have influenced its developmentas well as the possibilities that this development has allowed him to act and think as he does.
The importance of empathy
Empathy helps our human relationships, not only primary, but also those we establish in youth and adulthood. Empathy has numerous advantages such as the following:
- Enrich our understanding of the world
- Allows us enjoy our relationships
- Keep us from judging to others
- Help to solve problems or conflicts
- Increase the I respect
- Makes us collaborators and helpful
- Facilitates the dialogue
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