The pattern theory of compassion.

Compassion, empathy, and sympathy are often conflated in academic and clinical literatures. This article proposes a pattern-theoretic approach to distinguish them. Drawing on psychology, Western philosophy, affective neuroscience, and contemplative science, the authors clarify compassion as a specific pattern of dynamically related factors: physiological, cognitive, affective, relational/intersubjective, and motivational/action tendencies. They show that this dynamic pattern is reflected in neuroscientific findings and in compassion practice. The pattern theory enables clear distinctions between compassion, empathy, and sympathy, arguing that each involves different configurations of these factors.

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Abstract

Concepts of empathy, sympathy and compassion are often confused in a variety of literatures. This article proposes a pattern-theoretic approach to distinguishing compassion from empathy and sympathy. Drawing on psychology, Western philosophy, affective neuroscience, and contemplative science, we clarify the nature of compassion as a specific pattern of dynamically related factors that include physiological, cognitive, and affective processes, relational/intersubjective processes, and motivational/action tendencies. We also show that the dynamic nature of the compassion pattern is reflected in neuroscientific findings, as well as in compassion practice. The pattern theory of compassion allows us to make several clear distinctions between compassion, empathy, and sympathy.