Menu ▼

Empathic vs. emotional

I’m always under the impression that many people mix being empathic and emotional. Oxford dictionary states:

Empathic:

  • having the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experience, etc.

Emotional:

  • causing people to feel strong emotions
  • (sometimes disapproving) showing strong emotions, some in a way that other people think is unnecessary

One can exist without the other or at least be less prominent. A self-absorbed movie celebrity can have excessive public displays of emotions in response to critic reviews, but have no consideration for colleagues on a movie set, friends, or family. On the other hand, a grandmother that lived a harsh life dulled her emotions to cope, but can pull from that experience to understand how people feel in complex situations.


Previous blog post:
Writing for intrinsic reasons

Stay up to date:
Email · RSS feed · LinkedIn · Mastodon

Back to top ▲