Empathy and compassion

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To paraphrase Rasmus Hougaard, empathise is to join in with someone else’s suffering without necessarily doing anything to help. To be compassionate is to recognise suffering, but step back from it and ask “how can I help?”

Hougaard ’s four reasons:

• Empathy is impulsive. Compassion is deliberate.
• Empathy is divisive. Compassion is unifying.
• Empathy is inert. Compassion is active.
• Empathy is draining. Compassion is regenerative.