compassion mercy indifference pragmatism

Indifferent attitude... Indifference... What is it? Where does it come from in people? And if indifference is a diagnosis, then how to treat it?

Lately, indifference has become a common word. We often hear about him on television and radio. It's in the air on the street. Everyone is afraid of him, and when they encounter him, they don’t recognize him.

Because indifference is not a hefty guy with a bloody ax in his hands and not a suicide bomber with an explosive on his belt, but a little gray man who sits in a corner and quietly reads the newspaper while the guy and the suicide bomber are operating. He sits and hopes that he won’t be noticed, he expects that a kind policeman will come and arrest everyone, that everything will work out without him, but he will only get up in vain... He always has a logical explanation for his inaction. After all, he didn't do anything... like that.

But is this really so? How does a person feel who has experienced indifference? It methodically kills everything alive in a person, all feelings, including hope. At the same time, it seems to have nothing to do with it. That's why it's indifference. No responsibility. No regrets. And there’s nothing to blame it for, it didn’t do anything. How convenient... how small...

They say indifference is inherited. Indifference is akin to cowardice and meanness. It will never respond to someone else's pain. He just won't hear.

Indifference is the callousness and failure of the human soul. As a rule, indifferent people do not recognize themselves as such; moreover, some of them quite seriously consider themselves romantics. Funny... By definition, romance is feelings and emotions that elevate a person, it is “characterized by the depiction of strong passions.” To put it simply, romance is true love, devoted friendship... So indifference and romance are incompatible.

I would rather classify those who are indifferent, on the contrary, as pragmatists. But this is also difficult. Because they are nothing, neither this nor that, neither fish nor meat, fresh and tasteless. Sometimes well-read. And they can even quite emotionally retell what they read or heard. But very soon you begin to realize that these statements contain little personal relevance, and you lose interest.

Indifference is always disguised. Disguises itself as all sorts of human feelings. It deceives. And he himself believes in his own deception. And therefore it cannot be immediately recognized. And that makes it dangerous. Deception and disappointment hurt.

Indifferent people are half-humans, subhumans, standing at a lower stage of human evolution. And at their core, these are terrible people, because they lack all feelings except hunger, cold and comfort. Indifference as such is cruel. It destroys love, kills faith in people.

Indifference is a state of a person in which he does not show the slightest interest in anything. Synonyms: apathy, indifference, callousness, insensitivity, heartlessness, indifference, dispassion, indifference, passivity, callousness.

People often call indifference neutrality to make it sound more decent. However, this does not change the meaning of indifference. Indifference remains indifference.

The world through the eyes of the indifferent:

• - My hut is on the edge, I don’t know anything.
• - Your shirt is closer to your body.
• - After us - even a flood.
• - Our business is the side.
• - At least the grass won't grow.
• - I don’t delve into anything, such a difficult role for me!

I listen with half an ear. This is indifference.

Indifference is indifference. When is a person indifferent to something? In the case when it is not important to him or worthy of his attention. What could be the roots of indifference?

• -- Pride;
• - Selfishness;
• - Love of money;
• - Careerism.

Bruno Yasensky (1901-1938), a wonderful Polish and Russian writer, executed in 1938, wrote very correct words in his novel “Conspiracy of the Indifferent”: “Do not be afraid of your friends - in the worst case, they can betray you, do not be afraid of your enemies - in the worst case, they can kill you, be afraid of the indifferent - only with their tacit consent do betrayals and murders occur on Earth.”

A.P. spoke no less eloquently on this matter. Chekhov: “Indifference is paralysis of the soul, premature death.”

However, all of the above is lyrics, emotions. Some people might take it personally and be outraged, which is not a bad thing. And if he analyzes it, then it’s very good.

Because our coin also has a flip side. And on the other side, indifference no longer seems such a vice. Indifference can be a manifestation of so-called alexithymia - a condition that, although not contagious, is quite intrusive and unhelpful.

People suffering from alexithymia are unable to understand and understand their own feelings and experiences, and therefore, as a result, the emotions of other people are alien to them. Compassion is alien to them, empathy is alien to them and pity is alien to them. They lack intuition and imagination. The personality of such people, to quote psychology, “is characterized by the primitiveness of life orientation, infantility and, what is especially significant, by the insufficiency of the function of reflection.”

For reference. Reflection is an appeal to your inner world, to your experience, the ability to comprehend your own actions and their motivation, the ability to understand what you feel and why you feel.

The term alexithymia is further clarified: “The combination of the listed qualities leads to excessive pragmatism, the impossibility of a holistic view of one’s own life, a lack of creative attitude towards it, as well as difficulties and conflicts in interpersonal relationships. This is a state when a person is unable to see his whole life in one, as well as problems in communicating with other people

The origin of alexithymia varies. This phenomenon may be congenital. As, for example, a stable quality of a person’s personality. Or it may have an acquired, i.e. temporary, character. An example is a post-traumatic reaction, a condition resulting from experienced stress, prolonged depression, as a protective reaction of the body to aggression from the outside world.

One of the reasons may be a lack of warmth, affection, and participation in the upbringing of the individual from early childhood. According to statistics, most indifferent people did not receive enough maternal love and attention in childhood. Often, parents, instead of asking the child about what he is feeling and experiencing, not only do not pay attention to it (in other words, remain indifferent), but also teach the child to hide his feelings. Just like that, a healthy child can develop alexithymia, which will subsequently deprive him of many human joys, including the joy of loving and being loved.

Of course, I have not mentioned all the symptoms and manifestations of alexithymia, especially since its severity can vary. Some see it as a disease, a mental disorder, while others see it as a certain psychological make-up of a person’s personality. But the purpose of this article is not alexithymia, as such, but the essence of human indifference...

In this regard, I would like to note that not every indifferent person is affected by alexithymia. Many indifferent people simply pretend to be so or are mentally lazy people who are perfectly aware of the situation, take care of their own feelings, but try not to waste their energy on another person, even a close one. And this is already cruel.

The Toronto Alexithymic Scale (TAS), a special test consisting of 26 items, helps to check for the presence of true indifference, or alexithymia. Anyone interested can easily find it online.

As for the treatment of indifference, there is nothing comforting here. Scientists unanimously say that indifference cannot be cured. True, some optimists advise using empathy.

And in this regard, one cannot help but admit that indifference is worthy of pity, because the colors of life are inaccessible to indifferent people. They are not able to worry and are not able to rejoice. They are not capable of love. And that’s why no one likes them either. They are doomed to loneliness. This is a barren flower. They don't have wings...

Ask anyone if they are an indifferent person?

Yes you?! How is it possible?! Yes, I am ready to give my soul for my neighbor! When I was a child, I translated old ladies across the street! And thousands more examples of how he gave up his turn to a pensioner, or helped his neighbor drive a nail into the wall. How nice it is to feel like a noble and caring person!

Indifference, if you think about it, has a double meaning. Indifference as EQUAL, the same attitude towards “all souls”, that is, towards all people without distinction into races, nationalities and other differences that “set people apart”, and Indifference as poise, balance, the strength of the soul, which no one and nothing can deduce from balance, harmony.

So what's wrong with that? Why are most sayings about indifference negative? After all, they can be interpreted in a diametrically opposite sense. Which is much closer to our current existence.

In America, the principle of relationship (and now in our country) is reflected in one, most capacious expression: “These are your problems!” Accordingly, “These are NOT my problems!”

Everyone copes with their problems on their own, without burdening others with them. To the question “How are you?” here they don’t start talking long and tediously about problems, but answer briefly and as deceitfully as possible: “Fine!” Wonderful!

Even if you lost your job yesterday, your car was broken into, and a member of a “racial minority” robbed your wife. Fine! Everything else is my problem. Because YOU, who asked how MY was doing, have your own problems.

I don’t know how to help myself, much less how to help you. Therefore, many suggest that indifference is considered a disease that appeared in society out of despair. It is so easy and so convenient to consider a normal state as abnormal, “sick”. This is so uplifting! It is enough to “recover from indifference,” and immediately: “Man is a friend, comrade, and in some places even brother to man!”

Indifference is not a disease, it is rather a protection!

Protection from breaking, from exploding, from starting to destroy everyone and everything indiscriminately...

To be responsive and caring is too great an unaffordable luxury in our cruel times. React emotionally to everything that happens around you?

Too strong emotions will immediately begin to destroy us. Therefore, we retreat into indifference, into forgetfulness - just so as not to react and not freak out in vain... Especially if you feel and understand that you still can’t change anything.

Class hour. Subject: The roads of mercy.(4th grade)

Target: To develop students’ understanding of human virtues, the value of which is recognized in society.

Tasks:

1. To promote the development of motivation in students to perform kind and humane deeds.

2.Form a negative attitude towards human vices and immoral behavior.

3. Foster a sense of responsibility for actions taken.

4. To form a positive experience of cooperation, the ability to observe one’s behavior and attitude towards others.

Equipment: presentation of a video of S. Kopylova’s parable “Window”, printed words - mercy, indifference, cards with situations, candles for each student.

Form of work : frontal, group.

Progress of the lesson:

I. Solving the problem.

Watch a video of S. Kopylova’s parable “Window”.

The teacher stops. (forecasting).

What do you think the patient saw from the window?

(children's answers)

Continue viewing the parable.

What did the patient actually see from the window?

Where did all this go?

The teacher pauses again (prediction).

Why did the patient who was lying by the bed say that he saw a forest, a river, clouds, people? After all, he could not see it, he was blind.

(I wanted to console, cheer up, cheer up, ease the suffering of another patient who was lying at the door)

Continue watching the video.

What can you say about a blind person?

(kind, caring, attentive, sensitive, sincere, responsive, showed empathy, compassion, etc.)

Compassion is pity, sympathy caused by someone's misfortune or grief.

Empathy is sympathy for another, experiencing a state of mind with him.

Sympathy is a responsive, sympathetic attitude towards the experiences and misfortune of others.

Compassion is the ability to sympathize and empathize when another feels bad.

In one word he showed -

Can you touch mercy with your hands and hear it? It lives in the human heart. Is it possible to see him? You can only see it in a person’s actions.

(Attach the word to the board)

Mercy is the willingness to help or forgive someone out of compassion.

Mercy is a humane attitude (an attitude aimed at the benefit of others, philanthropic, sympathetic) towards a suffering person.

Mercy is participation in alleviating the misfortune, misfortune, and suffering of another person.

Mercy is the ability to give up one’s own in order to bring relief to another.

Charity is helping those in need.

What prevented the patient, who was lying at the door, from pressing the button, because it was very close to him, and calling a nurse? What did he want?

What can you say about the patient who was lying at the door? What character qualities did he have?

(envy, anger, hatred, selfishness, indifference, cruelty, heartlessness)

What was his worst quality that led to the accident?

You can't touch it either. It also lives in the hearts of people. Only in actions.

(Word on the board)

The man who was lying at the door was sick not only in body (physically)……he was sick in soul. Apparently, from childhood he was not taught to be attentive, sensitive, and friendly towards his loved ones.

II. Reflection on the problem.

Do you think a person is born merciful or becomes one?

For you, what is easier for you to be? Merciful or indifferent?

Is it easy to become merciful? How to learn to be merciful?

Conclusion: To cultivate mercy in yourself, you need to see yourself in another person, your worries, worries, i.e. put yourself in another person's place. Then you will understand how difficult it is for a person in need. Mercy requires the application of labor, trouble, anxiety, and often the renunciation of one’s benefits and the limitation of one’s desires. Becoming a merciful person and being one is very difficult.

Life always gives us a chance to show mercy, and here each person chooses for himself which path he will follow - along the path of mercy and help someone in need, or turn onto the path of indifference and pass by, closing his eyes.

III. Resolving the situation.

Remember, have you ever walked the path of mercy and helped someone? (Children's answers.)

Remember what good deeds people did towards you? (Children's answers.)

What do you think: which road is easier to follow and which is more difficult? Why? Which of these paths is flat and smooth, and which has obstacles and difficulties?

IV. Climax.

Let's return to the parable, to the patient who was left alone in the ward. Maybe someone has a new feeling towards this patient? No one felt sorry for this man? After all, he also wanted to lie by the window and admire the sky, the river, the clouds? He's a human too, isn't he?

- Loving goodness is easy. Try to understand and forgive evil. This is the power of mercy. The ability to forgive out of compassion.

How can you help this person?

How would you like the parable to end? (Work in groups)

(-Who proposed this version in the group? Were there other versions? Why did you choose this one?)

Moral choice.

Every day in our lives there are different situations, they put a person before the problem of choice: what to do in this situation, which one to choose - the path of mercy or indifference? Discuss the situations and share - what would you do?

Situation No. 1

Hello! My cat's name is Musya. I live in the city dump. I've been living here for four years now. My mother died a year ago from hunger, and I am trying my best to survive, but in the last year I began to get sick often. Recently, on the outskirts of the city, I met a cat who lives in a warm house. She was wearing a beautiful, shiny fur coat. She told a lot of interesting things about her home and her caring owners. I listened to everything attentively, everything was interesting to me, since I had never entered a person’s home, and I did not have a kind owner. I really want someone to take me into a warm, cozy home. I am very sad without friends, and I really want affection and a kind owner. New friend! I'm really waiting for you... Just call me “Musya!”, and I will immediately come running to you.
We kindly ask you not to throw us out into the street - we feel so bad here, lonely and scared! (illustration.)

Situation No. 2.

A boy and a girl were walking down the street. It was raining heavily. An old woman walked ahead of them. It was very slippery. The old woman slipped and dropped her stick into a puddle.

Wait for me!” the boy shouted to the girl and rushed to help the old woman. When he returned, the girl asked:

Is this your grandmother?

No! - the boy answered.

Mother? - my friend was surprised!

No.

Well, aunt or friend?

No, no, no! - the boy answered. - It's just an old lady.

Situation No. 3.

Brother and sister are walking with their mother in the meadow. They play catch, jump, and run. When they get tired of all the activities, they begin to uproot the grass and flowers from the ground. Mom, glad that the children themselves are interested in something, does not make any comments to them.

What advice can you give to mother and children?

In relation to what should mercy be shown here?

“If everyone picks flowers, there will be no beauty in the world.”

Situation No. 4.

One day, a brother and sister went out into the yard to play volleyball. They cheerfully threw the ball to each other and laughed loudly. And not far from the playground, in a wheelchair, with sad eyes, the boy Petya sat alone. He also had a ball in his hands. He also dreamed of running on soft grass, throwing and catching a ball. And the children happily played ball among themselves and did not notice anyone around them. They didn't care how the boy, confined to a wheelchair, felt. The main thing is that they themselves felt good and had fun. (illustration)

What should we teach these children?

Conclusion: We see that life always gives us chances to take the path of goodness and mercy and walk along it.

During natural disasters and environmental disasters, various countries always come to the rescue. Can this be called mercy between countries?
- And let us remember one more tragedy. This is Beslan. How many people were injured during this terrorist attack?! And how many people responded to someone else’s grief. Regardless of nationality, people showed mercy and compassion to those in need.

A volunteer is one who, of his own free will and not under compulsion, takes on some work.

A volunteer is the same as a volunteer.

A patriot is a person who loves his homeland, his people.

Virtue is a positive moral quality, high morality.

Charity is selfless mercy towards everyone who asks.

V. Denouement.

We talked a lot about mercy, and now I want those thoughts that you had during the lesson, which you could not say out loud, to be put down on paper.

Creative work in groups.

1g. -Depict mercy in the form of a drawing.

2gr.- Draw up a “Decree on mercy for all living things”

3gr. - Haiku about mercy, kindness.

4g.-Compose a “syncwine” about mercy.

VI. Reflection.

Children stand in a heart-shaped circle. The teacher places a small lit candle in each person’s palm.

Fire is a symbol of warmth, kindness, comfort.

Very soon you will graduate from elementary school, you will go to different schools, to different classes, and I really want these paths of mercy, which we are trampling now together with you, not to become overgrown, but on the contrary, to become wider and wider. So that you don't deviate from the path of mercy? and walked along it firmly and confidently, providing support and help to those in need. Love and do good to those around you and you yourself will feel how much happier you have become. Blow out your candle and let the light smoke from the candle show you the right path in life.

Application:

Compilation of "Sinquain"

Adjectives: Verbs:

Saves

Selfless helps

Gratuitous makes it easier

Mental support

Voluntary forgives

Heart warms

Light regrets

Reliable loves

Quiet Heals

Warm protects

Gives

Offers:

Mercy is first aid.

Mercy is warm sunshine.

Mercy is a medicinal drink.

Mercy is the salvation of the soul from indifference.

Charity is helping those in need.

Mercy is happiness for oneself.

Keyword:

1. Doctor.

2. Lifebuoy.

3.Happiness.

4.Rain in the desert.

Any person has at least once encountered a case when next to himindifferentlyapplied to elderly people, pregnant women, children and others. However, in many cases, few people wanted to help and helped these people. Why the saying: “ my house is on the edge, I don’t know anything "Is it still relevant today? And where is that feeling of compassion?

In everyday life there are many situations that require choice. A merciful person does not need to think about how to react to other people's troubles. Or maybe it's worth it? Maybe it's better to make an informed choice? Let's try to find out...

INDIFFERENCE is the essence

There is an opinion that lack of compassion for one's neighbor is the most terrible vice in the world.

This is stated in the Bible; Mother Teresa adhered to this point of view. This state has synonyms: indifference, callousness, cruelty. Bernard de Mandeville, an English philosopher, once said: “He who has no compassion is cruel.” And the famous American writer George Bernard Shaw went even further and said: “The worst crime we can commit against people is not to hate them, but to treat them with indifference; This is the essence of inhumanity.”

In other words, indifference is zero of any emotions at all: both positive and negative. But if the second benefits a person (the negative, as everyone knows, is already terrible at the molecular level, destroying DNA helices, promoting their mutation - scientists have proven), then the absence of the first at least does not give anything at all, that is, it is absolutely useless, at least from the point of view psychology.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov spoke very well about indifference in his time. He called this phenomenon “premature death” and “paralysis of the soul.” And, in essence, he was right, no doubt, because if you think about it, in fact, it turns out that a person indifferent to everything and everyone is no longer a person at all, but a walking somnambulist, a kind of zombie, it is not known at all why he lives on Earth.

However, do not forget about the following pattern: every minus necessarily has its plus. Where is this plus in indifference? But by and large, it’s terrible to even admit that there may be advantages to indifference, but let’s list them anyway:

Firstly, and this is the most important thing, by showing indifference in situations that require intervention, compassion, mercy, intercession, we protect our own nervous system. And this fact entails a reduction in the risk of heart disease, which is important.

Secondly, we do not waste ourselves, we do not give away our energy to everyone and everything. As a result, indifferent people will never experience the energy exhaustion inherent in donors.

Thirdly, an indifferent person does not have to experience the most unpleasant feeling - pangs of conscience.

COMPASSION is the essence

Now let's talk about empathy. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky characterized this state of soul as follows: “Compassion is the highest form of human existence.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was confident that “compassion is a natural feeling which, by moderating the effect of selfishness in each individual, contributes to the mutual preservation of the entire race.” Marcus Tullius Cicero called compassion “grief for someone else’s misfortune,” and Francois de La Rochefoucauld called it “the ability to see our own misfortunes in others,” “a premonition of disasters that may befall us.”

All of them, of course, were not mistaken in voicing such similar points of view on the phenomenon of the ability to sympathize with one’s neighbor. But the previously mentioned George Bernard Shaw, decrying, as you remember, indifference, spoke out not in favor of mercy: “Compassion is akin to mental illness.” However, this does not mean that all people who know how to show empathy are crazy. In the end, this is a personal opinion.

Is there any benefit to the possessor of the ability to be compassionate? Of course there is. A subject whose heart is filled with sensitivity and kindness is a real Person with a capital P. He is less fixated on his problems and troubles; his own life, from the height of the grief of those who are truly suffering, no longer seems to him as disgusting and hopeless as it seemed just yesterday. A person begins to see positive aspects where previously he noticed only negative things, and enjoy every moment of existence without war, famine, death and other disasters. If he tries to give up the ability to experience compassion, it will probably be difficult for him to do this, because his conscience will torture him. To lose this gift, you must forget once and for all about your earthly mission and the essence of man.

Everyone chooses what they consider necessary. And we have no right to condemn, perhaps!!!, a person’s choice, whatever it may be, but I think that indifference is not the case... we simply have to cultivate mercy, compassion in our children... otherwise the world will collapse. And we must not forget about one simple thing: if you are not touched by the pain of others, do not express your indignation at the inhumanity of the world around you. It’s better to start with yourself!

Compassion is a quality that only a real person possesses. It allows you to come to the aid of your neighbor without hesitation when required; An empathetic person has the ability to feel the pain of his neighbor as well as his own. Sympathy is a very good topic for an essay in the Russian language.

Why write an essay about mercy?

That is why schoolchildren receive tasks of this kind. In the process of work, they can work in more detail on the topic of empathy for their neighbors, understand what mercy really is and how it is expressed. Essay “What is compassion?” - a good way for the writer himself to realize this quality in himself, to become more merciful towards his neighbors. What points can you mention in your work?

What is empathy?

Compassion is a person’s ability to feel what another person feels as if he himself were experiencing the same experiences. It differs from empathy - after all, you can empathize with another person not only in pain, but also in joy, fun, melancholy or boredom.

A compassionate and empathetic person is able to understand what is going on in the soul of another. It is believed that if a person is capable of compassion, it means that he really has a heart and soul and is capable of love. A spiritually rich person is capable of compassion. She is able to remember something from her experience when faced with the misfortune of her neighbor, to provide him with help and support, since she herself knows how difficult it is to be in such a situation.

Substitution of concepts

However, compassion does not always actually manifest itself as a positive quality. There are many variations of compassion, and one of them is pity. This type of attitude towards people is very common in the post-Soviet space. Often people don’t take care of their health, don’t play sports, don’t value themselves and their own lives. However, at the same time, public morality prohibits abandoning those who, through their actions, have deprived themselves of this health.

A classic example is the spouses of alcohol addicts who remain close to their weak-willed husbands, even when their passion for drinking has made them disabled. It may seem that such a woman really experiences real compassion: “How can he live without me now? He will completely die." And she puts her entire life on the altar of “salvation” for her weakling husband.

Pity or mercy?

However, this type of relationship can hardly be called compassion. A thoughtful schoolchild writing an essay “What is compassion?” will understand: in such behavior only one feeling shines through - pity. And moreover, if such a woman, of which there are many in Russia, did not think only about herself and her feelings, she would choose a completely different model of behavior. Truly compassionate to her weak-willed and lazy husband and wishing him well, she would have ended the relationship with him as soon as possible - and perhaps then he would have realized that his lifestyle was destructive both for his own body and mind, and for his family.

About empathy in wild tribes

In the essay “What is Compassion?” Some interesting facts can also be mentioned. For example, not all cultures perceive mercy or empathy in the same way as in Russia, or, for example, in America.

In the wild forests of the Amazon lives an unusual tribe, the Yekuana. It is quite numerous, consisting of about 10 thousand members. The display of compassion among the Yekuana representatives is significantly different from what we are used to. For example, if a child gets hurt, parents do not show any signs of empathy, they do not even try to feel sorry for him. If the baby does not need help, then they wait for the child to get up and catch up with them. If someone from this tribe gets sick, the other members of the tribe will do everything in their power to cure him. The Yekuana will give their fellow tribesman medicine or call upon spirits to restore him to health. But they will not feel sorry for the patient, and he will not bother other members of the tribe with his behavior. This is a rather unusual type of manifestation of compassion. However, it must be remembered that the Yekuana tribe is at the stage of a primitive communal system. Such an attitude is unlikely to be acceptable to a Westerner.

An unusual type of help

In the essay “What is Compassion?” one can give various examples of the manifestation of mercy, and also describe different types of this feeling. In psychology there is also a type of empathy called anticipatory empathy. Its meaning is that a person (most often a psychologist) helps a person who is feeling bad in an unusual way: he himself goes to ask him for advice.

Usually people are surprised that someone does not try to help or console them, but instead asks them for advice. However, according to psychologist R. Zagainov, who works in the field of sports achievements, this method always “works” - a person becomes better after he himself has helped another. In an essay on the topic “Compassion,” you can also mention such an unusual way of helping your neighbor.

Antipode of mercy

In the essay-reasoning “What is compassion?” We can also mention the opposite of this feeling, namely indifference. It is believed that it is the most terrible vice that can only be characteristic of a person. This opinion was held by Mother Teresa, and it is also written in the Bible.

The writer Bernard Shaw said that the worst crime a person can commit against other people is not to hate them, but to treat them with indifference. Indifference means the complete absence of any emotions. A person who doesn’t care what happens around him experiences neither positive nor negative experiences. And if the latter can still benefit his health (after all, as we know, negative emotions destroy the cells of the human body from the inside), then the absence of positive experiences is absolutely useless.

The famous Russian writer A.P. Chekhov also spoke about this. He called indifference “paralysis of the soul” and even “premature death.” If you think about it, the great writer is right in many ways - after all, an indifferent person is indifferent to the whole world around him. He is like a zombie who has an outer shell, but is completely devoid of feelings inside. In the essay “Empathy and Compassion,” a student can describe this type of mental callousness in more detail, telling, for example, about a real-life incident. After all, everyone has probably seen how indifference manifests itself towards the elderly, pregnant women, and sick people.

How to write a good essay?

An assignment on this topic requires compliance with all the rules for writing a school paper: it must be literate, contain an introduction, a main part in which the main points will be outlined point by point, as well as a conclusion. Without this, you can hardly count on a good grade on your essay. Whether empathy and compassion are needed or not - the student decides for himself in his work. He can adhere to any point of view, and it will not affect the result. But the lack of arguments, spelling or punctuation errors, insufficient volume of the essay - all this can affect the assessment of the essay. Of course, most likely, most students will agree that without these qualities it is difficult to live not only for those people who surround a callous person; and it’s hard for him to live with such a cruel heart.

Is mercy necessary - everyone's decision

However, to be merciful or cruel, everyone also decides for himself. You need to answer the question for yourself: do I myself need empathy and compassion? The essay only helps to suggest such reasoning. A person who lacks compassion for people and for all living things can gradually develop these qualities in himself. How to do it? The easiest way is good deeds. You can start helping first relatives and friends who need it, then strangers. Now many different social institutions need help. And in the West, experience of charity or volunteering is a significant plus when applying for a job.