title: Empathy, identity and engagement in person-centred medicine: the sociocultural context.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper considers in outline the complexity of the empathic process from subjective, philosophical and psychological perspectives, and suggests that compassionate empathy is a core requirement of a person-centred approach to health care delivery. Empathy is facilitated by secure attachments in infancy (intersubjectivity) and a subsequent firm sense of self and personal identity. Empathic understanding is enhanced by the medical humanities, but the neglect of musical appreciation in this regard is surprising.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The biopsychosocial model is reviewed, and a body-mind-spirit paradigm is proposed as a more optimal framework for health care delivery in a multicultural society.
authors.affiliation: World Psychiatric Association, Geneva, Switzerland. john1.cox@virgin.net
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012933:Social Identification