Mole
Permabanned
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2008
- Messages
- 20,284
You have the definitions mixed up.
I have had this argument a hundred times and I am quite sure of my ground.
Sympathy comes from the Ancient Greek, 'sumpatheia', and empthy comes from the Ancient Greek, 'empatheia'.
And whether you like it or not, empathy means knowing with another feels and without feeling it oneself. And empathy is uniquely helpful in the helping professions.
Unfortunately we live in a narcissistic age where we won't even acknowledge that we can't empathise until we are taught, just as we can't read and write until we are taught.
And as well as living in a narcissistic age we live in the age of ignorance of even the difference between the words, 'sympathy' and 'empathy'.
In popular culture 'sympathy' and 'empathy' mean the same, Ancient Greek not withstanding.