Empathy & Doctors of Pakistan.

Abstract

The term empathy originates from the German wordEinfühlung and was first used by Robert Vischer in1873 to describe the projection of human feeling on tothe natural world1. Empathy ‘explains how we discoverthat other people have selves’2. Psychologist CarlRogers has popularised it. He focused on clienttherapist relationship rather than the process of therapy itself; placing the client at the centre3. This influenced the concept of patient-centred care.Self-concept is influenced by others’ attitudes, especially during formative years. A negative self-conceptarises from a highly critical environment, which distances the individual from their ‘organismic self’. Thiscauses confusion and ultimately results in the individual living out their lives by an external rather than internal locus of evaluation3. This means that the individualdoes what they believe others would want them to dorather than following their own desires1. Empathy isoften described with congruence (being genuine andtransparent) and unconditional positive regard (beingnon-judgemental)3.