Empathy and compassion – so important yet so complex, ASG, Pufendorf IAS

Advanced Study Group (ASG) at the Pufendorf Institutefor Advanced Studies

Relationships between individuals are the fabric of human civilization. The quality of relationships depends on empathy and compassion. These abilities are also crucial to professions and institutions that are foundational to modern society – healthcare, education, judiciary systems and law enforcement. In healthcare, compassionate care improves clinical outcomes for individual patients. Importantly, it also increases well-being of healthcare professionals and reduces their risk of burnout. Compassion for the “other” is, in addition, a guarantor of equal healthcare for all. It would therefore be highly beneficial to individuals, professionals and society in general if empathy and compassion could be efficiently, reliably and meaningfully enhanced by training. This is currently not the case. In fact, the complexity of empathy and compassion makes these concepts elusive even theoretically, and definitions and operationalisations across and within many studies are inconsistent. Our aim is to explore the conceptual and practical challenges associated with developing efficient,
evidence-based tools to enhance empathy and compassion. The starting point will be the healthcare context, but we expect discussions to expand eventually due to potential implications and wide applicability also in other contexts.