Empathy or Sympathy

I feel like a little lesson in language. I wish it was more similar to William Saffire's column On Language in the NYTimes, but it is not.

I have often struggled with the proper use of empathy versus sympathy. When does one exhibit empathy and when does one exhibit sympathy? How does one describe a sympathetic feeling or an empathetic feeling? Is it empathic or empathetic?

Lastly, do you remember Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lt Commander Deanna Troi? She was an empath. When I was in college, one of my classmates thought I looked like her. I wish! I do not have a luxurious mane of wavy, thick hair.

Empathy

Empathy (from the Greek εμπάθεια, "to make suffer") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize, perceive and directly 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 mode 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 word 'empathy' is the late translation into English from the German 'einfühlung'. This last word was coined by the philosopher Robert Vischer (1847-1933). First time Vischer defined even its specific meaning of aesthetic sympathy. This practically is the sentiment, not otherwise definable, which one feels in the face of a work of art. His father Friedrich Theodor Vischer had already made use of the evocative word 'einfühlen' in his studies about architecture, in accordance with the rules of the Idealism.

Contrast to other feelings:

One must be careful not to confuse empathy with either sympathy, pity, emotional contagion or telepathy. Sympathy is the feeling of compassion for another, the wish to see them better off or happier, often described as "feeling sorry" for someone. Pity is feeling that another is in trouble and in need of help as they cannot fix their problems themselves. Emotional contagion is when a person (especially an infant or a member of a mob) imitatively 'catches' the emotions that others are showing without necessarily recognising this is happening. Telepathy is a controversial paranormal phenomenon, whereby emotions or other mental states can be read directly, without needing to infer, or perceive expressive clues about the other person.

Sympathy is, "I'm sorry for your sadness, I wish to help."

Pity is, "Things are bad for you, you seem as though you need help."

Emotional Contagion is, "I feel sad."

Empathy is, "I feel your sadness."

Apathy is, " I don't care how you feel. "

Telepathy is, "I read your sadness without you expressing it to me in any normal way."

Sympathy

Sympathy is an emotional affinity in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other. 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. Not to be confused with empathy (literally the recognition but not sharing of others' suffering) nor with pity.

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 suffering, 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 another person's emotions, 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. Thus it is possible to be empathic but not sympathetic, by recognizing another's feeling but not being directly affected in the same way.

Questions Answered

It is empathic, not empathetic, but sympathetic, not sympathic. Sympathy is not empathy. Similar, but distinct.