Compassion
Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered partially rational in nature.
For other uses, see Compassion (disambiguation).
Compassion involves "feeling for another" and is a precursor to empathy, the "feeling as another" capacity (as opposed to sympathy, the "feeling towards another"). In common parlance, active compassion is the desire to alleviate another's suffering.[1]
Compassion involves allowing ourselves to be moved by suffering to help alleviate and prevent it. An act of compassion is one that is intended to be helpful. Other virtues that harmonize with compassion include patience, wisdom, kindness, perseverance, warmth, and resolve. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in altruism. The difference between sympathy and compassion is that the former responds to others' suffering with sorrow and concern whereas the latter responds with warmth and care.[2] An article in Clinical Psychology Review suggests that "compassion consists of three facets: noticing, feeling, and responding".[3]
Etymology[edit]
The English noun compassion, meaning "to suffer together with", comes from Latin. Its prefix com- comes directly from com, an archaic version of the Latin preposition and affix cum (= with); the -passion segment is derived from passus, past participle of the deponent verb patior, patī, passus sum. Compassion is thus related in origin, form and meaning to the English noun patient (= one who suffers), from patiens, present participle of the same patior, and is akin to the Greek verb πάσχειν (paskhein, to suffer) and to its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos).[4] Ranked a great virtue in numerous philosophies, compassion is considered in almost all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues.
Neurobiology[edit]
Olga Klimecki (et al.), found differential (non-overlapping) fMRI brain activation areas in respect to compassion and empathy: compassion was associated with the mOFC, pregenual ACC, and ventral striatum. Empathy, in contrast, was associated with the anterior insula and the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC).[35]
In one study conducted by James Rilling and Gregory Berns, neuroscientists at Emory University, subjects' brain activities were recorded while they helped someone in need. It was found that while the subjects were performing compassionate acts, the caudate nucleus and anterior cingulate regions of the brain were activated, the same areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward. One brain region, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain, contributes to learning altruistic behavior, especially in those with trait empathy.[46] The same study showed a connection between giving to charity and the promotion of social bonding and personal reputation.[47] True compassion, if it exists at all, is thus inherently motivated (at least to some degree) by self-interest.
In a 2009 small fMRI experiment, researchers at the Brain and Creativity Institute studied strong feelings of compassion for social and physical pain in others. Both feelings involved an expected change in activity in the anterior insula, anterior cingulate, hypothalamus, and midbrain, but they also found a previously undescribed pattern of cortical activity on the posterior medial surface of each brain hemisphere, a region involved in the default mode of brain function, and implicated in self-related processes. Compassion for social pain in others was associated with strong activation in the interoceptive, inferior/posterior portion of this region, while compassion for physical pain in others involved heightened activity in the exteroceptive, superior/anterior portion. Compassion for social pain activated this superior/anterior section, to a lesser extent. Activity in the anterior insula related to compassion for social pain peaked later and endured longer than that associated with compassion for physical pain.[48] Compassionate emotions toward others affect the prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, and the midbrain.[48] Feelings and acts of compassion stimulate areas known to regulate homeostasis, such as the anterior insula, the anterior cingulate, the mesencephalon, the insular cortex and the hypothalamus, supporting the hypothesis that social emotions use some of the same basic devices involved in other, primary emotions.[49]
Compassion in practice[edit]
Medicine[edit]
Compassion is one of the most important attributes for physicians practicing medical services.[50] Compassion brings about the desire to do something to help the sufferer.[12] That desire to be helpful is not compassion, but it does suggest that compassion is similar to other emotions in that it motivates behaviors to reduce the tension brought on by the emotion.[12] Physicians generally identify their central duties as the responsibility to put the patient's interests first, including the duty not to harm, to deliver proper care, and to maintain confidentiality.[12] Compassion is seen in each of those duties because of its direct relation to the recognition and treatment of suffering.[12] Physicians who use compassion understand the effects of sickness and suffering on human behavior.[51] Compassion may be closely related to love and the emotions evoked in sickness and suffering. This is illustrated by the relationship between patients and physicians in medical institutions.[12] The relationship between suffering patients and their caregivers provides evidence that compassion is a social emotion that is related to the closeness and cooperation between individuals.
Skalski, J. E., & Aanstoos, C. (2023). The Phenomenology of change beyond tolerating. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 63(5), 660-681.