Balancing the Virtue of Empthy with the Oslerian Ideal of Equanimity

Part of a series

Many people view empathy, the ability to understand how others feel, as a virtue. Some even experience the same feelings others are having; they don’t only understand them. Too much of that can make it harder to be objective as the suffering patient’s physician. Our judgement can be clouded by empathy and our clinical stamina can be hurt by it.

Sir William Osler wrote about Equanimity (spelled Aequanimitas in his time). I’m not sure he used the word virtue about it, but he saw it as an ideal frame of mind, recognizing our patient’s feelings, but not becoming so overwhelmed by them that we can’t be levelheaded and logical clinicians. I wrote about this in Aequanimitas – Doctors Stirred, Not Shaken.

“Imperturbability means coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances, calmness amid storm, clearness of judgment in moments of grave peril, immobility, impassiveness, or, to use an old and expressive word, phlegm. It is the quality which is most appreciated by the laity though often misunderstood by them; and the physician who has the misfortune to be without it, who betrays indecision and worry, and who shows that he is flustered and flurried in ordinary emergencies, loses rapidly the confidence of his patients.”

Aequanimitas – Doctors Stirred, not Shaken

Osler also used the concept of equanimity about controlling the tendency we doctors have to get frustrated about the many limitations and requirements of our positions – yes that was common even in his day!

Sir William Osler put it this way:

“Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaint.”