What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability to feel, understand and respond to others' emotions in a way that supports others, while being able to distance oneself from them to avoid finding oneself in distress and suffering.

Empathy requires self-awareness and the ability to put one's own world aside to come to understand the emotional world of the other. According to the latest studies in cognitive science and neuroscience, we have all the brain and mental properties required to enable the knowledge of others, in the sense of the representation of his psychic life and therefore the adoption of the "point of view of others".

Empathy is broken down into three complementary skills:

1. Cognitive empathy or understanding of emotions

This is the ability to spot and understand the emotions of others. A good example is the psychotherapist who understands the client's emotions rationally, but does not necessarily share the client's emotions in a visceral sense.

2. Affective empathy or sharing of emotion

This is the ability to feel an appropriate emotion in response to that expressed by others. People with high affective empathy are those who strongly feel the suffering of others.

3. Emotional regulation

This refers to the ability to regulate one's emotional responses and to distinguish between the emotions of others and one's own. Emotional regulation requires a good knowledge of oneself, of one's thoughts, emotions and reactions.

Why do we feel empathy?

Numerous studies in social and developmental psychology indicate that empathy is an adaptation that favours the social behaviours on which the survival of the human species depends. The biology of evolution teaches us that specialised neurobiological mechanisms have evolved to enable humans to perceive, understand, predict and respond to the inner states of other individuals.

Research suggests that empathy offers many social and psychological benefits:

• The person who receives empathy feels understood, less alone and therefore less vulnerable. More serene, he will be better able to mobilise his resources to find solutions. His level of anxiety will decrease.
• The person expressing empathy feels useful and valued. His level of self-esteem and self-confidence will increase. The person will be able to establish a relationship of trust with others and his relationships will be more intimate and authentic.