Utilizing physician empathy with violent patients

The pendulum of change in psychiatric investigation has swung far in the direction of understanding the biology and chemistry of human emotion and behavior. This vigorous focus in applying the scientific method to problems of human behavior tends to neglect those areas which do not easily lend themselves to such an approach. Empathy can be described and perhaps sensed in another's response but not measured or even proved to exist. This fact should not prevent study of this concept any more than Einstein allowed the limitations of Newtonian physics to prevent him from postulating an enhanced paradigm of our physical universe. This paper explores the concept of empathy and demonstrates its use in the intervention with three patients who presented to a psychiatric emergency room in the context of acutely violent behavior. Some better-known and simpler concepts used in managing these patients have also been discussed.