[teampractices] Empathy vs compassion, when helping others

[Mukunda Modell]

I hear that breathing can be dangerous. Showers also.

I apologize for adding precisely nothing useful to this otherwise
interesting and thought provoking thread.

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 5:42 PM, Kevin Smith <ksmith at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Thanks both for sharing those links. It quickly became clear to me that my
> definitions of empathy, sympathy, and compassion, are fuzzy. Quick skims of
> the relevant wikipedia article intros didn't really help.
>
> I have heard that sympathy is "bad", so I'll just empathize instead. Oops,
> empathy is now dangerous? No problem, I'll just have compassion. Did I
> actually change anything other than the word?
>
> I just proposed a Tea Time topic for this.
>
>
>
> Kevin Smith
> Agile Coach, Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 3:09 PM, Natalia Harateh <nharateh at wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for sharing, Max! I’ll definitely read the article. If I can add
>> to the discussion, here’s a short 2:53 min video explaining empathy in a
>> way that resonated with me <https://youtu.be/1Evwgu369Jw>.
>>
>> TL;DR:
>>
>> *What is the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering? In this
>> beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only
>> create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get
>> in touch with our own fragilities.*
>>
>> On 23 Feb 2017, at 23:53, Max Binder <mbinder at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>> I ran across an article claiming that empathizing with others on their
>> issues can be a slippery slope to bias, or at the very least unnecessary
>> absorption of another person's issues and feelings. The article was
>> political in nature, so I won't post it, but it did make some claims that I
>> thought to research.
>>
>> That let me to this article on compassion as an alternative to empathy:
>> http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/when_empathy_hu
>> rts_compassion_can_heal
>>
>> I can't attest for the reputation of the site linked, but it makes some
>> interesting arguments. I thought those arguments might be relevant since we
>> often operate in an environment with, and espouse values using, words like
>> "empathy."
>>
>> TL;DR:
>>
>> we can better cope with others’ negative emotions by strengthening our
>>> own compassion skills, which the researchers define as “feeling concern for
>>> another’s suffering and desiring to enhance that individual’s welfare.”
>>> “Empathy is really important for understanding others’ emotions very
>>> deeply, but there is a downside of empathy when it comes to the suffering
>>> of others,” says Olga Klimecki, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute
>>> for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany and the lead author of
>>> the study. “When we share the suffering of others too much, our negative
>>> emotions increase. It carries the danger of an emotional burnout.”
>>>
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