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RSSEmpathic or Empathetic?
Mary Meehan wonders about the difference between empathic and empathetic:
I was reading a book that discussed the importance of empathy. The author routinely used the adjective “empathic” to describe those possessing the quality of empathy. I have always heard and used the adjective “empathetic”, although upon looking it up it seems both words are valid.
Are there any rules or guidelines regarding the proper use of these two words?
Both empathic and empathetic derive from the noun empathy:
The power of projecting one’s personality into (and so fully comprehending) the object of contemplation. –OED
Since both forms of the adjective are recognized by the OED and Merriam-Webster, speakers and writers are free to choose the form they prefer.
The older form is empathic (1909). The form empathetic derives from the more familiar pairing of sympathy and sympathetic. The earliest date for the use of empathetic given in the OED is 1932. It could be that scientific writers prefer the older term.
The word empathic makes me think of the word empath.
Neither the OED nor M-W has an entry for empath, but I know from a StarTrek episode that an “empath” is a being who can feel another’s pain–literally.
“The Empath” (1968) is excruciating to watch. Gem, the “empath” of the title, is an alien who combines feelings of empathy with the power to heal. When Kirk and McCoy are injured by torture, she is able to heal them with her touch. However, in healing them, she takes their injuries into herself, suffering horribly in the process.
Because of the StarTrek influence, I do see a difference between empathic and empathetic. I would use empathetic to describe the empathy an ordinary person feels. I’d use empathic to describe the feeling experienced by an empath.
Although neither the OED nor Merriam-Webster has an entry for empath, Answers.com Science Fiction Dictionary has. The word is illustrated with excerpts from the writings of J. T. McIntosh, H. Ellison, A. McCaffrey, M.Z. Bradley, S. Stewart, and M. Rosenblum.
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I would never use the word “empathetic”; it’s not a real word. (Dictionaries follow usage, and a lot of people use words erroneously, so it doesn’t really surprise me that it made it into a dictionary, but I am surprised by the date).
Empathetic may indeed harken to the words sympathy and sympathetic, yet the connection I make is to emetic. And that doesn’t fit, really. Or maybe pathetic. Pity, that.
Thanks for the post describing the difference between those words.
I wish I could write really good English on any topic. Since I’m a 16-years-old guy from Bangladesh and English isn’t my primary/native language, I’m not fluent in English. I like writing in English better as this language is globally understood.
I am glad that I found such a nice site (DWT) which teaches us writings tips though it made me sad that my English is still full of thousands of errors.
I’m with Maeve on this one. I think of empathic as feelings experienced by an empath, and empathetic as something we Muggles can experience.
The terms empathetic and empathic, next-door neighbors in the dictionary, bear similar definitions, etymologies and historical usage (Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991). Though some authors writing about empathy demonstrate shifts in usage (e.g., Zillmann, 1991; Zillmann, Mody, & Cantor, 1974), and some misread one for the other (e.g., den Heyer, 2002; cf. Yeager & Doppen, 2001, p. 99), major works on empathy (e.g., Batson, 1991; Davis, 1994; Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987; Ickes, 1997) as well as prominent researchers of media and empathy (e.g., Landis & Koch, 1977; Hoffner & Haefner, 1997; Preece & Ghozati, 2001; Tamborini, Stiff, & Heidel, 1990; Wilson & Cantor, 1985; Zillmann, 2006), all prefer the term empathic.
References
Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
den Heyer, K. (2002). [Review of the book Historical empathy and perspective taking in the social studies (Davis, Yeager, & Foster, 2001)]. Education Review, Review 165.
Eisenberg, N., & Strayer, J. (Eds.). (1987). Empathy and its development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hoffner, C., & Haefner, M. J. (1997). Children’s comforting of frightened coviewers: Real and hypothetical television-viewing situations. Communication Research, 24(2), 136–152.
Ickes, W. (Ed.). (1997). Empathic accuracy. New York: Guilford Press.
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174.
Preece, J. J., & Ghozati, K. (2001). Experiencing empathy online. R. R. Rice & J. E. Katz (Eds.), The Internet and health communication: Experience and expectations (pp. 237–260). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Tamborini, R., Stiff, J., & Heidel, C. (1990). Reacting to graphic horror: A model of empathy. Communication Research, 17(5), 616–640.
Wilson, B. J., & Cantor, J. (1985). Developmental differences in empathy with a television protagonist’s fear. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39(2), 284–299.
Yeager, E. A., & Doppen, F. H. (2001). Teaching and learning multiple perspectives on the use of the atomic bomb: Historical empathy in the secondary classroom. In O. L. Davis, E. A. Yeager, & S. J. Foster (Eds.), Historical empathy and perspective taking in the social studies (pp. 97–114). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Zillmann, D. (1991). Empathy: Affect from bearing witness to the emotions of others. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Responding to the screen: Reception and reaction processes (pp. 135–167). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zillmann, D. (2006). Empathy: Affective reactivity to others’ emotional experiences. In J. Bryant & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 151–181). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zillmann, D., Mody, B., & Cantor, J. (1974). Empathetic perception of emotional displays in films as a function of hedonic and excitatory state prior to exposure. Journal of Research in Personality, 8(4), 335–349.
I associate the word “empath” with science fiction, too.
Empathetic is so firmly established in the language that empathic now seems jarring. Shouldn’t the goal of our writing be to communicate information as clearly and without interruption as possible? When I stumble on a word like empathic, my first response is that it’s a typo. It wouldn’t help if I looked it up and found that it was the older version.
I love how “Star Trek” has led the way, even in our uses of language.
Was the origin of empath as a paranormal psychic ability created in Star Trek, in Russian mind-control warfare research, or within the New Age and Pagan communities? Or academic research?
According to Wikipedia, early psychic research has been going on for while. “The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in London in 1882.” Apparently, in parapsychic circles, an empath is one branch of telepathy.
I probably have to research this more, but for now I have to report that while “empathy” obviously comes from Ancient Greek, at least in Modern Greek it has almost opposite meaning: to be εμπαθής (empathetic) means to be spiteful (empathy accordingly)
The Ancient Greek dictionary I just checked lists:
a) someone who has lost self-control & is overtly emotional/shaken
b) “εμπαθής τινί”/ “εμπαθής προς τι” (empathetic towards something): someone excessively affected by something
c) “εμπαθης φιλία” (empathetic friendship): very passionate friendship
Excuse the bad translation (i really need to get to sleep), but isn’t it interesting how the Greek & Ancient Greek uses are so far apart and how the English is actually closer (but not identical) to the Ancient Greek? The obviously all revolve around the idea of passion (one of the meanings of ancient & modern greek πάθος [pathos]) but the Modern is VERY negative. ho-hum.
Interesting question.
The term empathetic appears to be the one commonly used in experimental psychology, social neuroscience, and cognitive science. Perhaps because empathic may have been preempted by clinical psychology as well as popular psychology, often with a special emphasis on picking up another’s moods and feelings. It is also used to characterize people who are especially good at such things. In contrast, empathetic would typically cover a variety of responses and capacities, unconscious as well as conscious, involved in the perception of other people. These include the ordinary everyday capacity to interpret another’s behavior unconsciously by internally mirroring it (via mirror neurons).
So, independently of StarTrek, I come around to agree with Maeve’s suggestion:
I would use empathetic to describe the empathy an ordinary person feels. I’d use empathic to describe the feeling experienced by an empath.
Just trying to find the correct pronunciation of empath– and since it’s not in any dictionary that I can find, I don’t know the proper way to say it. I just want to make sure that I say it correctly. I believe that I am an empath.