Sympathy. - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Sympathy.Empathy.Pity.

How are they different?Slide2

denotes feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.SYMPATHYSlide3

SYMPATHYThe noun 

sympathy

 denotes

feelings of pity and sorrow

for someone else's misfortune. For example

:

You

have my utmost sympathy. You trained

like crazy for

that race. 

I would like to extend my sympathy to your son. I'm very sorry to hear of the death of his goldfish. 

The corresponding 

verb

is 

to sympathize

:

The professor

will sympathize with you. She knows how hard you trained. 

(There is no suggestion the

professor

has trained hard herself (that would be 

empathize

 not 

sympathize

). As a result, the 

preposition

with

 does not feel right with 

to sympathize

 because 

sympathizing

 usually means you haven't experienced the bad event yourself. 

With

 seems a better fit for 

empathize

. However, it is used with both verbs

.)Slide4

SYMPATHYSympathy is not always about feelings of pity and sorrow. It can also mean to understand or to agree with. It also has the feeling of

not full support

.

For

example: 

It's

hard not to have sympathy with their claims. 

It's clear from her inaction that she sympathizes with their cause. Slide5

denotes the ability to understand and share the feelings of another (having shared the same, or a similar, experience).empathySlide6

Empathy The noun 

empathy

denotes the ability to understand and

share the feelings

of another. This ability usually derives from having

shared the same, or a similar, experience

. For example, you can have empathy for a poor person if you are, or were, poor.

I

have empathy for your problem. I've been there. 

Empathy is at the heart of the actor's art.  (Meryl Streep)

“The

great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy

.” (

Meryl Streep)

Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and understanding.  (anon)

The

corresponding 

verb

 is 

to empathize

:

I

can empathize with you. I've been there. 

He

will empathize with you. He managed the same department for ten years

.Slide7

sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another, often leading one to give relief or aid or to show mercy: to feel pity for a starving

 child.

pitySlide8

pityPity, on the other hand, tends to have a negative connotation.  But, according to Etymonline.com, the word comes from the early 13th century Old French pite, pitet, from the Latin pietatem 

meaning “piety, affection, duty,” and

in

Late Latin “gentleness, kindness, pity,” from 

pius

(which comes from Latin meaning “dutiful, kind, devout”).

In

relating the word pity to

pius

, i.e., duty, it appears that having a feeling of pity

is caused by a sense of responsibility, rather than a genuine feeling of kindness.