title: From ancient consolation and negative care to modern empathy and the neurosciences.
abstract: A historical understanding of the virtue of consolation, as contrasted to empathy, compassion, or sympathy, is developed. Recent findings from neuroscience are presented which support and affirm this understanding. These findings are related to palliative care and its current practice in bioethics.
authors.affiliation: Theology Department, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA. wreich01@georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Warren T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Reich
mesh_terms: D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D059167:Mirror Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009014:Morals; D009488:Neurosciences