The Psychology of Personal Growth and Better Relationships

2What Is Empathy?

Caring About Your Partner's Thoughts, Feelings, and Current Situation

Empathy is having an open heart toward others' emotions, thoughts, and conditions. In Part 1, we touched lightly on how an attitude of empathy is necessary to develop common sense when we studied how Adler often said, “Look with another's eyes. Hear with another's ears. Feel with another's heart.” In Part 3's story, Adler advised Yukari to empathize by becoming Makimura, saying, “See with your partner's eyes, hear with your partner's ears, and feel with your partner's heart.”

When you read Adler's books, you can see that he liked this expression, often using the word partner to mean others or children. If you use Adler's pattern, you can treat others with empathy. See yourself as elderly when dealing with the elderly, as a patient when treating patients as a doctor, or as a customer when helping customers as an employee.

With that in mind, this is how I define empathy: Empathy is having an open heart for others' emotions, thoughts, and conditions.

The Difference Between Empathy and Sympathy

Some people may believe that feeling sympathy for others is the same as having empathy for them, but in Adlerian psychology, these are not the same. The chart below highlights the differences. As you ...