If we are empathic we can help people, because empathy makes us put ourselves in the shoes of the other. Empathy is defined as "the understanding of another person's experience by imagining themselves in that other person's situation: one understands the experience of the other person as if it were experienced by the self." In the field of psychology, empathy is A central concept From a mental health perspective, those with high levels of empathy are more likely to function well in society, reporting "larger social circles and more satisfying relationships".
Empathy is vital in building successful interpersonal relationships of all kinds, in the family unit, in the workplace and beyond. Lack of empathy, therefore, is an indication of conditions such as antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. In addition, for mental health professionals such as therapists, having empathy with clients is an important part of successful treatment. "Therapists who are very empathetic can help the people in treatment to face past experiences and gain a better understanding of the experience and the feelings that surround it"
Some investigations distinguish two types of empathy: emotional empathy and cognitive empathy. This means that empathy can be categorized as an emotional or cognitive response. Emotional empathy consists of three separate components. The first is to feel the same emotion as another person. The second component is personal anguish, which refers to one's own feelings of anguish in response to perceiving another's situation. The third emotional component is feeling compassion for the other person, and it is the most frequent. The second type of empathy is cognitive empathy. This refers to how well an individual can perceive and understand the emotions of another. Cognitive empathy implies having a more complete and accurate knowledge about the contents of another person's mind, including how the person feels. Cognitive empathy is more of a skill: human beings learn to recognize and understand the emotional state of others as a way to process emotions and behavior.
