Posted by: thapap October 2, 2007
NYC Hit and Run Sunday...
Login in to Rate this Post:     0       ?        
Contrasting empathy to other phenomena

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."

"empathy" by wikipedia can be accessed by clicking here

[ may not be what he is implying or trying to convey but empathy does fit the sentence and would/could convey his argument regardless. ]

my 2 cents .. use of "empathy" is justified.
Last edited: 02-Oct-07 03:19 AM
Read Full Discussion Thread for this article