Compassion and the True Meaning of Empathy, Essay Example

These two videos discuss the currency of compassion and empathy, especially when treating patients who are suffering from life-threatening or terminal illnesses. Halifax (2015) addresses the various faces of compassion, cogently quoting the Dalai Llama who once opined that “love and compassion are necessities, they are not luxuries. Without them, humanity would not survive” (Dalai Llama, as cited by Halifax, 2015).  Halifax goes further and argues that not only would humanity not survive, all species of animals on the earth would not be able to survive. Halifax (2015) provides her own personal experience when she was privileged to teach hospice in the outskirts of Bangalore. She recalls walking into the hospice ward where there were 31 men and women who were “actively dying,” and she recalls a conversation she had with one of the old women who was breathing very rapidly and was clearly in a fragile state. Her son sat next to her and was clearly confused and grieving, and Halifax (2015) recalls the notion from an old Indian tale that people can be dying all around the world, and they never realize that it can happen to them until it does. Young women from the villages of Bangalore were tending to the 31 people who were actively dying in the ward, and their faces evinced how much strength germinates when there is natural compassion present. Those who have natural compassion have a phenomenal amount of strength that has become the guiding light in the lives of people such as Halifax who had lost her eyesight and was partially paralyzed when she was four years old. Compassion refers to an individual’s capacity to clearly see into the nature of another person or animal’s suffering and to find strength when realizing that a person is not separate from the suffering of another. However, true compassion means that a person aspires to transform that suffering and engage in activities that help change the suffering of others. It is of paramount importance that those who are compassionate do not attach themselves to the outcome because doing so extinguishes the ability of a person to be fully present for the totality of the catastrophe. I agree with Halifax that compassion is an inherent human quality, but there are certain conditions that are necessary for compassion to be aroused in all.

Sharma (2014) conducted an interview with an expert psychiatrist about the challenges that both physicians and patients face when terminal diagnoses are given. Physicians are taught to be vague when giving patients a timeline for how long they have left to live due to the fact that it is inherently difficult to predict when people may die. As such, they want to give patients a general sense of the finite time they have left to live, although what patients seek for varies on an idiosyncratic basis. Making a plan after being given a terminal diagnosis and giving patients ample information so that they can plan is of paramount importance. What many physicians tell patients is to hope for the best but to plan for the worst, which seems lacking in compassion but encapsulates the stark reality of life for a terminally-ill patient. If patients fail to plan for the worst, they are often taken by surprise throughout the course of their illness and thus become angry. Whole patient care calls for psychiatrists to participate in the care of terminally-ill patients because of issues such as psychological ones in which patients struggle to cope, or social issues such as how the patient will pay for their medical bills.

References

Halifax, J. (2015). Compassion and the true meaning of empathy. TED Talks.  Retrieved October 31, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ocm8_UKJs

Sharma, A. (2014). Dealing with life-threatening illness from both a doctor and a patient’s perspective. KPBS News. Retrieved October 31, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVnZGZDslgk