A Definition and Key Features of Empathy in Patient Care

Abstract

Empathy for me has always been a feeling “almost magical” in medical practice, one that brings passion with it, more than vaunted equanimity. Empathy is the pro- jection of feelings that turn I and you into I am you , or at least I might be you . Empathy grows with living and experience. More than a neurobiological response, it brings feelings with it. Empathy helps us to know who we are and keeps us physi- cians from sterile learned responses. Originally, the emotion generated by an image, empathy began as an aesthetic concept, one that should have meaning for medical practices now becoming so visual.