A short animated video from Brene Brown/Katy Davis (thanks to Kayla Lewis for this link) helps explain the difference between empathy and sympthany. Here’s the link: Short Video on Empathy (the animation is not that great but the message is important)
Key points:
- Empathy brings people to together and sympathy often drives people apart.
- Empathy never begins with “at least” …it wasn’t worse
- Sometimes empathy means saying ‘I don’t know what to say but I’m glad you told me.’
Harrison Ford defines Sympathy in 42 – YouTube. In the movie “42,” Harrison Ford’s character describes sympathy as being derived from the Greek word to suffer together. In many cases, sympathy can be difficult to distinguish from pity; this is one reason why empathy can be much more helpful.
Unrelated (but interesting): Comic Version Graphic Points Need for Discussions DNR
Here’s one frame:
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