Involved

You may say it's just a game of words, and I was making a fuss for nothing. After all, being able to share how our patients feel (that is, to empathize) is a good way to let us know how best to take care of their overall well-being (that is, to sympathize).

On that, once again, I beg to disagree.

The reasons are obvious. First, our sense of empathy may not be accurate. By definition, only the Big Brother knows every feeling of a person - and I hope you don't want to join and become someone behind the Telescreen.

But, more importantly, being too involved in another person's emotion may do no good to either party. Not only would the two sides fall into a positive reinforcement cycle and cannot get out of their grievance and resentment, being too sensitive to the emotions of others would almost always bias our professional judgement.

Unfortunately, the contemporary irony is, many a time our system rewards the ones who sympathize, or simply empathize, rather than those who really offer an unbiased professional opinion. Although it was Sherlock Holmes who solved the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Henry was certainly more thankful to Dr. Watson.