There are many rumors and speculations about empathy. Some consider her to be something like extrasensory perception, others compare empathy with empathy for loved ones. Meanwhile, the truth lies somewhere in between.
Empathy is an understanding of the mental and emotional state of another person, that is, the ability to perceive the feelings of the interlocutor, while realizing that these are the emotions of another person. If a person perceives the partner's emotions as his own, then this is no longer called empathy, but identification with the interlocutor.
There is a theory that mirror neurons, discovered in 1990 by a group of Italian scientists, are responsible for empathy, but this hypothesis has not been fully studied. Remarkably, mirror neurons were originally found in the frontal cortex of monkeys.
Empathy is more than reading the mood of the interlocutor by his gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice. In order to master this method of reading the emotions of the interlocutor, you just need to read a well-written book about sign language. And still, you will not be able to accurately understand the degree of despair, joy, or excitement of your interlocutor.
Psychologists don't think empathy is great. They even developed methods for identifying the level of empathy and its gradation. So, the level of empathy can range from low - a light emotional response, to high - complete immersion in the thoughts and feelings of a partner. To build deep sensual relationships, the possession of empathy is essential! A partner should not only feel sorry for and sympathize, he should understand what his other half is experiencing. This is when real intimacy comes in.
Another type of empathy is found in science fiction books - when close people can feel each other's emotions at a distance. This empathy is akin to extrasensory perception. In reality, such forms of empathy have not been confirmed, nor have they been refuted. During the experiment, people who showed high results, when the experiment was repeated, could no longer repeat the previous result.