Empathy: a lost meaning?

Empathy: a lost meaning?Empathy.Such a soft and fluffy word, warm and comforting.Yet, what does empathy really mean?Do doctors truly empathize?What is the value of empathy?Over recent years in Britain, authors of texts on communication skills for physicians have exploited the term empathy.With the greater emphasis on communication in medicine, these authors have defined the contemporary medical meaning of the term.Thus, "empathy" increasingly describes the way physicians reassure their patients by acknowledging and endorsing their mood and emotions.For example, in their book Talking With Patients, Myerscough and Ford assert that empathy is "an appropriate controlled, professional response to the patient's affective reaction to illness." 1 However, more authoritative sources ascribe to the term a different significance.The Oxford Medical Dictionary defines empathy as "the ability to understand the thoughts and emotions of another person."We might justly consider this a more valid definition.....