SYMPATHY And EMPATHY

Empathy and Sympathy sounds similar but are much different from each other. You seems to be intelligent as well as a kind hearted, So will you answer a simple question? I hope the answer is positive. The question is like : There are 3 friends very close to each other, they are like till death friends. So the condition is one of them whose name is "A" has lost his mother couple of years before, the one whose is "B" still live with his/her mother and the one who is named "C" his mother is also alive. Suddenly one day the mother of "B" died in an accident and this news spread like fire in his village and other two of his friends "A and C" came to his home in a rapid fast and saw his friends condition he is crying and crying. A and C could not see their friend in this condition and they also felt like crying. 

So, now tell me that which friend will have "Sympathy" and which one will have "Empathy" for their friend "B" ?? Please share your views in the comment section and it will be better if you comment right now because you could know at the end you were right or not.

Now let us understand what is Empathy and Sympathy. Both Empathy and Sympathy is the origin from greek word known as "Pathos", which has two meanings 1) Suffering and 2) Feeling.

SYMPATHY

• It is older than Empathy  means empathy took birth around 150 years back while sympathy is from ancient times.
•  Sympathy could be given to someone when there is an environment filled with Pain and Sadness. It is mandatory to have a depressed situation for sympathy. 
• Sympathy is to feel.

If we need to define Sympathy in one line we can say " Sympathy is the ability to feel pain and sadness of other (can be human, animal, birds or any fictional character) ."

 

EMPATHY

• To understand someone's mood. 
• Empathy provides the person to understand more in-depth about one's situation. 
• Empathy does not requires any particular condition, it can be implemented in both good and bad situations.

If you need to define Empathy you can say " Empathy is the ability to Know/Understand the Mood/Mental state of others (could be humans, animals, birds or any fictional character)."

The above two comparison is just to make you understand the difference and get you some idea fof the two. 

Now, we will go in-depth and understand about the two.

Empathy

The original or the first meaning of Empathy was  "Pathetic Fallacy", here, Pathetic is not a meant to be negative it used to represent positive nature when combined with the word Pathos (Which we have discussed above) and Fallacy means the logical mistake in the world of philosophy. 

Let us understand in a better way the meaning of "Pathetic Fallacy" with the help of an example :

Suppose a man who just broke up few hours before with his girlfriend because of some issues, now the man with his broken heart walked towards his home and while he was walking back to his home, the weather suddenly changed strong winds stars to blow, dark clouds in the sky and after few minutes it starts to rain heavily. After seeing this kind of environment the man starts to think even god is unable to stop crying by seeing him in this condition. 

Now here is a question for you, Is it true that because today the man broke up with his girlfriend so the weather changed beautiful to harsh? or Is it just his vague about it as he his in pain and sadness is in his mind? 

I think you are all mature enough that you would not go with the thought process of the man, and if it is so than you should think it once more. There is a reason behind saying No, as there are so many people's in this world and many of them had break up with anyone, so to say that god is also sad so the weather is bad today is wrong. These type of thoughts are counted as silliness of the person, and all this is counted under "Pathetic Fallacy". 

Hope you might understand what was the olden days meaning of it, but now-a-days the meaning of it have changed and which we have discussed above in the EMPATHY section, you can have a look if you need to. 

I would like to add one more important phrase to make you more clear about Empathy which is :

"Putting your feet in the shoes of others" 

There is a very deep meaning behind the above phrase which tells us that before saying or expressing your thought for anyone's condition you should once keep yourself in his/her situation and think for a while what you would do or what would think. You will never comment on anyone until you Empathise there situation/condition. 

Suppose you along your parents and siblings going for a walk in evening and everyone is saying most little fast but your father is walking slowly and you rhetorically saying to your father t walk fast walk fast. After observing for several minutes you asks your father to exchange the shoes and you said see I could walk fast in this shoes and you are saying I am unable to, but as soon as you put the feet into the shoes and took your first step you felt a nail and you could not walk as much as your father could walk and after understanding and going through the same situation now you walk with your father slowly. 

Categories in Empathy 

1. Cognitive 
2. Emotive
3. Compassionate

Cognitive 

It is the intellectual ability of one to learn, remember and understand the concepts; it means that someone knows about a collective topics or an individual too, it depends. 

This is the ability which few people could develop within and it is very rare if someone had it by birth. 

Emotive 

Emotive represents the emotion, feelings; towards someone it can be bad or good depends on the individual and the situations. This is the situation where almost every person reaches. 

Compassionate 

It is the last stage where few people reaches and completes it, it is to help someone when he/she is in need.  

** Remember one thing that the process/steps defined above will remain in the same order while talking about Empathy, you could not change the order because if you change the ordered series you will iself feel like unbalanced. 

Sympathy

Sympathy is to feel the pain or sadness of other, but we could take this Emotiveness one step ahead by helping (Compassionate) others in need. 

The state of Compassionate could strike or emerge in one's mind or not, it is not mandatory to have it.

Example:  Suppose you went to wash your hands at wash basin and you saw a small insect struggling to come out from that basin but is unable to do so, so you will have Emotive(Feeling) for that insect and it is obvious because it can be bad or good but not neutral. Now it's the choice either you want to help that insect or not which is State of Compassionate. 

Sympathy is easy to understand because we all have it in our nature and could make it more more strong as life goes on, but it is difficult to inherit the Empathy in our nature. 

Levels of Sympathy 

1. Emotive (Feel)
2. Compassionate (To help) 

What are the Similarities between Empathy and Sympathy?

• Both are origin of greek word "Pathos".
• Abilities to connect with others.

What are the Differences between Empathy and Sympathy?

• Sympathy : To Feel & Empathy : To Understand
• Empathy : Depends on Mood[can be bad or good] while Sympathy : Mandatory to have pain.
• Empathy starts where "Otherness disappears" and Sympathy is along with Otherness.
• Empathy : Cognitive, Emotive and Compassionate; and Sympathy : Emotive and Compassionate.

Hope you would have understood the meaning and difference between Empathy and Sympathy and now you could explain to others easily whenever needed. 

Thank you dedicating your time. Have a Wonderful day!!!