The Global Empathy Deficit:
Two Lessons
© 2004 Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D.
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"...We've got a budget deficit that's important, we've got a trade deficit that's critical, but what I worry most is our empathy deficit.” – Interview in "O" Magazine with Barack Obama.
Perhaps this is not only a US national concern but a global crisis: people are dividing into camps and fighting one another with no mention of sitting down to dialogue.
We, as global human beings living on a shrinking planet, have to stop the insanity, start talking, and stop the fighting.
The fighting is not only among warring nations. It goes on in corporations, small businesses, between entrepreneurs, in schools, in neighborhoods, and in families. There is a lack of talking, listening, and empathizing between people. This is especially true when they are different from us in some way.
We lose patience with others not like us or not of the same viewpoint. We stop listening. And consequently, we lose our ability to understand and find solutions.
We are missing opportunities for talking and dialoguing about what really matters. Dialoguing of course means listening and hearing what the other person is saying. It is not a monologue. It requires more than listening—it requires empathy.
Lesson # 1 in Empathy
Empathy has several ingredients. Most people understand empathy to be “walking in someone else’s shoes.” It is more than that.
Lesson #2 of Empathy
People usually have a tendency to jump in and want to do something to help too soon. They want to get out of their own discomfort by solving the problem. Often they don’t take the time to really understand what the real problem is before offering solutions.
Like so much, empathy begins with developing ourselves individually, permeates our families and is taught to our children, and then must be communicated with the leaders we entrust to deal with other countries. A continued lack of empathy will result in global degradation.
The full article includes steps, questions and solutions for creating greater empathy between people and how this ties in with creating a global environment for the future.
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Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., CBC
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