In search of empathy -
a physician’s manifesto
Marcin Chwistek, MD

There is a
crisis in
medicine
today...

that is quite different from
escalating health care costs

Paperwork

or 8 millions of children
without basic health insurance

it is a crisis of ...putting
oneself in someone’s elses’ shoes

or in other words a crisis of:
empathy

As medicine became more
scientific, we have moved
away from the bedside ...

to a virtual world of i-patients

and as a result
medicine lost its heart...

We became detached
and distant

ignoring the world of emotions

as inferior
and distracting

and yet the basic
reality of
medicine has not
changed.

Issues of illness and loss

life and death

continue to affect us deeply

but we keep denying
the existence of emotions

instead of embracing them
instead of embracing them

we shush them

instead of letting them be

we ignore them

instead of being attuned
to them

Empathy (greek: empatheia) =
en(in) + pathos (feeling)

empathy is emotional
resonance

empathy is a form of knowing

and:
to feel with = to act for

Empathy is the seed
of compassion