Empathy can be defined as the ability to put yourself in the place of others. It is part of emotional intelligence and is made up of cognitive and affective components.

What is empathy for?

Through empathy, we are able to understand the perspective of other people, getting to know how others think or feel. It also allows us to understand the intentions of others and anticipate their reactions or behaviors.

Interest in empathy is nothing new, as in the 18th century Robert Vischer used the term “Einfühlung” to refer to a projection of feelings that would facilitate rapport between two beings.

Can empathy be developed?

Empathy is the name we give to a set of processes that allow us to connect on an emotional, cognitive, affective and experiential level with other people.

The empathy mechanism is possible thanks to the functioning of certain brain structures such as the prefrontal and temporal cortex, the amygdala and other limbic structures.

Without these structures we could not form a theory about the mental state of ourselves or other people, which is what allows us to finally understand other perspectives.

Under normal conditions, we can all develop the ability to empathize. For some people it is easier and for others it is more difficult and requires more effort to understand certain aspects that have never occurred in their lives or, even if they have occurred, have not affected them in the same way.

Everything in its extremes is maladaptive:

If we always put ourselves in the place of others, there may come a point where we ignore our own needs and this affects our well-being.

And conversely, if we fail to detect how our actions affect others, we can also have problems.

There are certain conditions or mental states in which these structures are altered and therefore do not function correctly, such as depression, but once recovered from that state, the ability to connect with others returns to normal.

It is currently a highly researched concept due to its complexity and importance in many disorders such as depression, anxiety, some personality disorders, autism spectrum disorders or violent behavior, among others.

Types of empathy:

Some theorists argue that empathy is a capacity that can be had or not, and even learned. In addition, they differentiate between three types of empathy: cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathic interest or concern.

Cognitive empathy

Cognitive empathy refers to the ability to understand another person’s way of thinking.

This type of empathy arises thanks to self-awareness, that is, when we analyze the thoughts that arise in ourselves and we are able to see what emotion or feeling they generate in us. That same mechanism when applied to others, allows us to understand another person’s point of view.

Emotional empathy

Emotional empathy allows one to connect with the emotions of others. For example, when someone tells us that a loved one has passed away and we also feel sad. Knowing our own emotions and feelings allows us to tune in to the other person’s emotion.

empathic interest

Empathic interest, related to the previous one, allows us to know what another person wants or needs from oneself.

The empathic concern concern can cause suffering if we do not know how to manage it, if we believe or feel as an impulse that we must attend to the needs of all the people we care about, we will end up feeling overwhelmed and mentally exhausted, even being able to develop feelings associated with anxiety or depression.

Empathy or Sympathy, what is the difference?

When we hear that someone sympathizes with an ideology or with a person, we understand that they share beliefs, desires, objectives or personal tastes with what they sympathize with.

If we say that someone is nice, we mean that it is pleasant to be with that person and surely it is pleasant to us because it presents certain characteristics with which we identify or that we find positive in a person.

But sympathizing with someone does not imply understanding the person.

When a person sympathizes, they adopt the emotional state of the other, they introduce the other person’s emotion into themselves, either because it reminds them of a situation that happened a while ago or because they think about how they themselves would feel if they were going through that situation, but from his point of view, not from the other’s point of view.

However, when we empathize with someone, we understand how the other person feels. A person who empathizes with another, connects with the other’s emotional state, understands it, gets to know the other person’s beliefs, how their inner world works and how the outside world affects them.

Conclusion:

Empathy has a function of adaptation at a social level, it allows connecting with others, understanding the internal world of other people. It can be deduced that understanding the other facilitates the improvement and maintenance of ties in different social relationships.