TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rubin, Robert T.
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/04/18
TI  - Compassion in Medicine – A Psychiatric Physician’s View
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 025
VL  - 04
IS  - 02
AB  - There are several definitions of sympathy, empathy, and compassion on the internet.  I have chosen the above definitions to emphasize their salient differences, for the following reason:  In medical school, in the early 1960s, we were taught not to sympathize with patients, but to empathize:  By empathizing, one can retain some professional objectivity toward the patient, in order to be of some help.  To sympathize, on the other hand, was to immerse oneself in the patient’s suffering and lose one’s professional perspective.  This worked, insofar as the insulation afforded by the empathic approach allowed one to consider therapeutic approaches reasonably objectively.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.1902025
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.1902025
ID  - Rubin2019
ER  -