Selina Iddon delves into the differences between empathy and compassion, starting with a high court judge's experience. She explores the healing process and distinguishes between these concepts, highlighting the importance of compassion over empathy. The discussion covers how compassion, curiosity, and courage interplay, and warns against the unhealthy aspects of empathy. Selina illustrates empathy's pitfalls with a movie example and discusses avoiding responsibility. She advocates for shifting language from empathy to compassion and underscores the power of language in leadership. The episode concludes with insights on compassion leading to fulfillment, wrapped up with closing remarks.
Compassion is powerful and both admirable and effective qualities of great leaders, empathy however is the opposite. "Empath" is becoming a more popular word for relating to oneself as a good quality and this podcast questions that.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode, particularly if you can think of an example when empathy would be healthy. Email me at [email protected]
(0:00) Introduction to empathy versus compassion and high court judge's experience
(1:15) Healing process, distinction, and aspects of empathy versus compassion
(2:03) Compassion, kindness, and its removal from personal beliefs
(3:25) Compassion, curiosity, and courage
(4:38) Unhealthy aspects of empathy and shifting focus
(6:11) Compassion in understanding and courage in unique experiences
(7:40) Empathy, comfort zones, and ego-driven empathy
(9:04) False empathy and movie example
(10:48) Empathy as unhealthy and avoiding responsibility
(11:56) Changing language from empathy to compassion
(12:28) Power of language in leadership and identity
(14:21) Compassion leading to fulfillment and closing remarks