Personas of Empathisers & the case of Hindu mythological character “Karna”
Empathy seems to be very often used word in design these days. So often that it’s been questioned and even discarded by some big names in the design industry.
Since I am coming from an engineering background who loved Physics, I have a tendency to breakdown abstract-and-difficult-to-understand topics and give them an objective-and-structured-shape to them. My study took me to types of empathy and where I learnt that there are three types of empathy and an exploration on personas who empathise.
But first let me clarify about another word which is often mistaken as empathy and the word is SYMPATHY
Sympathy is not Empathy
The person in the left (picture below) is neither affected at emotional level nor at the intellectual level after looking at the person on the right. There might be another word that comes closer to sympathy and that is “Apathy” but not always.
1. EMOTIONAL EMPATHY
When we experience other person’s emotions even without experiencing their actual pain, it is called Emotional empathy. Generally, people with Emotional empathy only experience the emotion by bringing back some of their own old memories or fear of themselves or their loved ones in a situation that evokes the same emotion.
The emotional empathy is good as long as one is not overwhelming themselves with the flood of emotions.The down side of this type of empathy is that the emotions can drown a person in grief .
An example of emotional empathy gone wrong would be someone who is depressed at looking at the covid news and stories of other people. Since an emotionally overwhelmed person may not take necessary precautions, he or she may end up in similar situation which they dread or felt sorry for others.
2. COGNITIVE EMPATHY
Cognitive empathy is when the person clearly understands the other person’s problem and exactly knows about the pain but does not feel their emotions.
The downside to this type of empathy is that, one may turn evil and start manipulating the other person’s emotions and pain.
An example of cognitive empathy gone wrong, would be someone who stockpiles vaccines, medicines and oxygen cylinders during a pandemic like covid and tries to sell them in black market rates.
Empathy is seen as projective self-improvement which is actually a form of narcism that passes as caring.
People suffering with Emotional and Cognitive empathy do not have a balance between their Heart and Head
3. COMPASSIONATE EMPATHY
Compassionate empathy starts when a person empathising, has a fully functional and balanced head & heart. They are able to understand and that the pain is experienced by the other person only, but also they can feel their emotions; Since they also have a head (that cannot be overwhelmed by emotions triggered by over-pumping of the heart)they also take the actions that can help the other person or mitigate the situation.
The downside of compassionate empathy is when one forgets the limits of their own capacity to help. A very articulate writing about the limits of empathy is here.
Examples of compassionate empathy is when someone helps (within their capacity) the people suffering
CASE OF “KARNA”
Karna is one of the prominent characters in Hindu mythological epic poem, Mahabharata. He was known for his helping nature and hence had a name “Danveer Karna” (translates to Donation-warrior Karna).
He is seen as a tragic-hero (also categorised as ‘flawed-good-man’) who was known for ethics and morality but ended up being on the wrong side for fulfilling his loyalty to his friend Duryodhana. Karna was considered invincible due to his natural armour he was born with and extra-ordinary abilities as a warrior.
Karna was tricked by one their opposition leader (Krishna) to give away his natural protective armour and weapon which ultimately lead to his death despite being considered as powerful contender for Arjun (one of the protagonist in the epic).
Karna was a victim of himself who exceeded his limits of empathy and hence making himself vulnerable in the battlefield.
Even in today’s Indian context when someone does a random act of kindness to someone unknown, people around them (usually the closest family members) tease them as a descendent of Karna. The impact of Karna is so big on Indian culture is that we see his shades in modern forms of art such as films.
Following is a scene from a Bollywood movie “Rajneeti”
