Empathy-A Mustfor Humans
Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place Empathy can be regarded as cognitive ability that is the ability to assume future strategies or to find solutions to the problems depending on the past experiences.
Other way round, the person with empathy connects with the other person emotionally and/or psychologically to reach the same mental status as that of the other person. When this actually happens, the identities of both the individuals coincide and the limiting boundaries that create the distinction between them seem to disappear. Each one of us has the inner tendency to limit ourselves and develop a strong sense of individuality which if exceeds a particular degree is termed as ego.
This ego is like a hurdle &when we try to show empathy our ego acts as a big wall which separates us from the rest of the people, especially the people that belong to some other groups like opposite gender, other nation or other social class. We bind ourselves in a narrow trap which we build around ourselves comprising our strong desires, self centered motives and selfish thoughts.
We tend to become so selfish that we create a world of our own and are engulfed in ourselves. We become so self-centred that we are unable to understand the perspective of other people existing in the world besides us and they become meaningless for us. This makes us just incapable to understand or experience the suffering and the pains that they bear and have to go through. This loss of empathy these days can be linked to the reason for increasing brutality and crime rate.
On the brighter side, if one is able to understand and identify the feelings, sufferings and pains of other people, there will be an emotional and psychological connection existing between them. If such a psychological and emotional connection is established between two individuals, then they would be able to develop a strong and inevitable desire to make the other one able to relieve the pain and suffering and help them in any manner they can.
As per the Greater Good Science Centre which is the Research Institute studying psychology,
neuroscience of well-being and sociology: “Empathy is a building block of morality if people follow the golden rule it can help them when they are able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.” It is also a prime component of a successful relationship because it aids us to understand the lookout, intentions and needs of others. If a human heart is filled with empathy then it becomes impossible for them to act brutally towards other fellow human beings. While the absence of empathy gives birth to cruelty, brutality and oppression, in contrast the presence of empathy heals disputes.
The forms of various brutalities done by humans; every oppression, crime and cruelty; all are because of the absence of empathy, making people capable to attack, rape, rob and oppress other human beings. Each and every conflict that exists in the world is the result of lack of empathy, the absence of which makes one just equivalent to an animal.
While passing through all the stages of life from being a child to an adult, empathy plays a very important role in social, emotional and psychological interactions that happen between human beings. The ability and the wish to empathize with others is what makes us a real human being. The broader it expandsfrom one social group to other, from one nation to the other, from one religion to other and from a victim to an offender; the lesser is the degree of brutality thus giving rise to harmony and peace.
