ABSTRACT
Empathy is the ability to identify with and understand another person's experience, and facilitates most human relationships. Studies show that one of the predictors of empathetic behavior in physicians is whether they have been personally affected by illness either themselves or through a close relationship. That experience opens their eyes to the personal impact of illness and the difficulties inherent in dealing with the medical bureaucracy. A recent study found that the natural empathy of first year medical students decreases during their training, weakened by the culture, environment, and time demands of undergraduate medical education. Dan Gilbert, a psychologist, researcher, and author, argues that much of human happiness comes from thinking about and planning for the future anticipating new relationships, career opportunities, experiences, and possessions that will make life "complete." In the literature of medicine, there is a steadily growing interest in the narrative aspects of medical practice and physicians' writings about their work.
