Tag Archives: David Jeffrey

Eye contact: a gateway to empathy

September 30, 2021

David Jeffrey Edinburgh, United Kingdom   Bradley by David Jeffrey “Do you think I needed anticoagulants for my atrial fibrillation?” I asked the general practitioner. He stared at his computer screen, and answered without looking at me. “No-one knows for sure. I will print out a recent article which you can read at home and then […]

Montaigne’s Essays: Emotions and empathy

April 22, 2019

David Jeffrey Edinburgh, Scotland   Michel de Montaigne. François Seraphin Delpech. 19th century. Bibliothèque de Bordeaux. The term empathy was coined a little over a hundred years ago and since then its definition has evolved. At first empathy was regarded as a sharing of emotions, but modern medicine emphasizes cognitive aspects of the concept.1 Regarding […]

Empathy for medical students

April 28, 2017

David Jeffrey Edinburgh, United Kingdom   Medical students check blood glucose on a patient. On a windy corner of Drummond Street, not far from Rutherford’s pub in Edinburgh, there is a small bronze plaque with these words: “And when I remembered all that I hoped and feared as I pickled about Rutherford’s in the rain […]