[EMPATHY IN MEDICINE, NECESSARY BUT NOT FREE FROM RISKS].

Empathy may be defined as the ability to understand or even share others' emotional state. It is a multi-faceted construct that relies on discrete psychological processes with specific neural correlates. In the context of doctor-patient relationships, clinical empathy also encompasses the physician's ability to communicate his or her understanding of the emotional state of the patient. However, sharing the emotional states may elicit compassion fatigue and burnout symptoms among physicians and medical students and eventually reduce their empathic capacities. A decline of these capacities is indeed observed during medical training. Perspective-taking may protect physicians from such detrimental effects while allowing them to show sustained empathic concern. Interventions to promote empathy among medical students should target both communication skills and humanist values, as the former may depend on the later to grow.