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Toward a consensus on the nature of empathy: A review of reviews
Stockholm University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7839-7245
Mälardalen University, School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Health and Welfare. (COMCARE)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0407-9831
2021 (English)In: Patient Education and Counseling, ISSN 0738-3991, E-ISSN 1873-5134, Vol. 104, no 2, p. 300-307Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objective

The objective was to provide a synthesis of already synthesized literature on empathy in order to identify similarities and differences among conceptualizations.

Methods

A review of reviews was conducted to locate synthesized literature published between January 1980 and December 2019. Two authors screened and extracted data, and quality-appraised the sources. A total of 52 articles deemed relevant to this overview were synthesized using thematic analysis.

Results

The analysis resulted in four themes found in most empathy conceptualizations. In empathy, the empathizer (1) understands, (2) feels, and (3) shares another person’s world (4) with self-other differentiation.

Conclusions

Most writings about empathy begin by claiming that there is far from a consensus on how empathy should be defined. This article shows a developing consensus among neuroscientists, psychologists, medical scientists, nursing scientists, philosophers, and others that empathy involves understanding, feeling, sharing, and self-other differentiation.

Practice implications

A clarification of the content of empathy may assist practitioners and researchers in avoiding confusion regarding the meaning of the concept, as well as in developing and measuring the relevant aspects of the concept.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 104, no 2, p. 300-307
Keywords [en]
Empathy, Concept analysis, Feeling, Understanding, Literature review
National Category
Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-51576DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.08.022ISI: 000614149200012PubMedID: 32888755Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85090057596OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-51576DiVA, id: diva2:1477613
Available from: 2020-10-19 Created: 2020-10-19 Last updated: 2022-09-02Bibliographically approved

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Håkansson Eklund, JakobSummer Meranius, Martina

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