Empathy Movement Magazine

The next day of note promoted by Bloggers Unite is the 1st International Day of Compassion on May 15, 2011.

This day is in honour of Dr. Patch Adams. Bloggers Unite would like this to become a UN sanctioned day and have sent a petition to Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon.

When you shoot Botox into your face to freeze it into a mask of dispassionate youthful non-expression, you might also be harming your ability to perceive emotions in others, a new study says.

"if muscular signals from the face to the brain are dampened, you're less able to read emotions."

Why would Botox injections blunt a person's ability to interpret another's fear, worry, joy or sadness, while dermal fillers do not?

The study's lead author, USC psychology professor David T. Neal, surmised that it is Botox's hallmark paralyzing effect on facial muscles in the immediate vicinity of the injection site that would negatively affect a person's ability to read another's emotional state.

Baron-Cohen, whose book Zero Degrees of Empathy has just been published, wants to raise awareness of the human empathic system and the devastating consequences when it malfunctions. He wants society to progress from condemning people as evil and instead understand why they acted without due concern for the pain they would cause.

It was a full house and with the RI's 19th century clock reliably ticking, and its president His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent in attendance, the evening's lecture was introduced by Claudia Hammond

The act of compassion begins with full attention, just as rapport does. You have to really see the person. If you see the person, then naturally, empathy arises. If you tune into the other person, you feel with them.

If empathy arises, and if that person is in dire need, then empathic concern can come. You want to help them, and then that begins a compassionate act. So I'd say that compassion begins with attention. - Daniel Goleman
(Art Gallery & Quote)

Empathy is a psychological concept, and has been translated into sympathy, empathy and so on, first by the master of the humanist Carl Rogers proposed. It refers to a person for others feelings, emotions and aspirations of the degree of concern and sensitivity, used to evaluate a person for the position of the feelings of others and standing on other people perspective and problem solving skills.

Held in Kunshan in May this year the international scientific seminar on evaluation and education, countries in the field of education and evaluation experts have highlighted a culture of empathy. Indeed, in addition to learning ability, creativity, analytical ability, etc., the empathy for a student future development will play a crucial role.

The teens participated in a poverty simulation as part of a week of service learning in Boise that also had them volunteer at homeless shelters and build a safety gate at a preschool.

Simulations like this are one way that service groups and welfare agencies in Idaho and across the nation raise awareness about the issues their clients face while increasing empathy among employees, volunteers and donors.

But in an economy where so many are seeking services, it is even more important for those who can give or serve to have that empathy.

According to a study published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, Botox may not only numb facial muscles, but also – and for the same reason – numb users' perception of other people's emptions.

Taken together, the two studies seem to indicate a direct relationship between ability to express emotion through facial expression, and the ability to experience emotion oneself, or identify it in others.

A new study has come out today saying that Botox may dull your ability to understand the emotions of others.

Why would a potential dulling of empathy necessarily be a cost, i.e. something valuable which is lost? Since women are the vast majority of Botox users and studies all over the world have concluded that women already have a superior ability to empathize and detect emotions than men do, might not Botox merely help level the empathy playing field?

Empathy is a powerful interpersonal tool which is under-valued in our society. Ineed it is a skill that is frequently underutilised. Perhaps this is in part due to the misconception that em-pathetic somehow implies pathetic? It is often confused with sympathetic, but while empathy denotes a deep emotional understanding of another’s feelings or problems, sympathy is more general and can apply to small annoyances or setbacks.

In Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to Potential with Challenging Youth, Brendtro, Mitchell, and McCall summarize empathy as follows:

Empathy is the foundation of moral development and pro-social behavior. The original word began in the German language as Einfuhlung which is literally translated as feeling into. Empathy taps the ability of mirror neurons to display in our own brain the emotions, thoughts, and motives of another. Empathy allows us to share anothers joy and pain and motivates care and concern.