title: Empathy and sympathy: voices from literature.
abstract: Empathy and sympathy fit perfectly with medical practice, but reflection and research demonstrate a lack of consistency in the use and definition of empathy as well as the multitudinous definitions of sympathy. A short excursion into contemporary literary works reveals diverse opinions about the clinical usefulness of empathy and sympathy.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona, USA. mathiase@email.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Helle
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mathiasen
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations