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I'm feeling your pain - really

Tracing the neurological roots of empathy.

Beyond this link with those close to us, our capacity for compassion (from the Latin compassus, “to suffer with”) is the basis of the doctor’s vocation, of the volunteer’s urge to work for charitable causes, and of every person’s desire to see more harmony within his or her community.

It’s also the foundation of ethics, as held by Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century philosopher. In our bodies’ capacity to feel the emotions of others, he saw the origin of morality: If he suffers, I suffer, so I must try to prevent his suffering.

The link that unites us both with suffering and with the happiness of the world around us is inscribed deep within our brains. It’s this link that makes us human beings, at once individual and connected, sensitive and responsible.

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