To be honest, most of the evening’s presentation – although fascinating in a sort of “I have no idea what she’s saying but she says it so well” sort of way – left me wanting.
Of course, there’s really no one to blame but myself. There I was, a former liberal arts major, listening to a lecture by a well-respected psychologist and research scientist on “The Neurobiological Basis of Compassion and Implications for Inflammatory Disease.” What was I thinking?
Fortunately, the lecturer, Stony Brook University associate professor of preventative medicine Stephanie Brown, started off with a pretty basic definition of compassion: “A type of helping behavior and/or the motivational state that gives rise to this behavior.”
By ERIC NELSON
