Everyone says we need more empathy – but too much of it can burn you out. Mind training lessons from monks and psychopaths could help us care without crumbling
Empathy is undeniably a good thing. Understanding how others are feeling is a bonding mechanism that we are finding in an increasing number of animals, including dolphins and rats. In humans, primatologist Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, has suggested that being affected by another’s emotional state was the earliest step in our evolution as a collaborative species.’
By Emma Young
