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, which 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.

Topic: “SYMPATHY, INDIFFERENCE AND CRUELTY.”

Goals: correction of character defects - cruelty, anger, indifference; promote the development of analytical and self-reflection skills; nurturing elements of moral consciousness.

Methods: solving situational problems, discussion.

Progress of the lesson

1 Organizational moment.

2 Introduction to the topic:

“He who has no compassion is cruel.” B. Mandeville.

How do you understand this statement?

3Discussion.

Work in 2 groups.

Group 1 – working on an explanation of Seneca’s saying “If you want to live for yourself, live for others.”

Group 2 – preparing to explain M. Gandhi’s statement “The ability to forgive is a property of the strong. The weak never forgive."

Messages from children.

Conclusion: if a person lives for others, he is kind, attentive, caring, and the people and animals around him love him. If a person is vindictive and unkind, then he has few friends, he is alone in this world, and life is difficult for him.

4. Children in groups are preparing to reveal the concepts of “sympathy,” “cruelty,” and “indifference.”

The teacher invites each group to formulate definitions: sympathy, indifference, cruelty. Then the groups are given sets of cards with individual words, from which they need to create definitions on the board next to these words. After completing the task you should get the following:

Sympathy is the desire to show compassion to someone, to provide help, to empathize.

Cruelty is the manifestation of violent, rude actions towards someone.

Indifference is a manifestation of an indifferent attitude towards the environment.

How do you understand what cruelty is? Give examples of cruelty.

How do you understand what indifference is? Give examples of indifference.

How do you understand what empathy is? Give situations from your life where a person would show empathy.

Cards with the words “sympathy” are attached to the board.

“cruelty”, “indifference”, “indifference”.

Work at the board with thematic cards.

The teacher hands out cards to the children with life situations marked on them that are characteristic of a certain quality: sympathy, cruelty, indifference.

Task: place the received card on the board. Explain your actions.

During the task, a table is built on the board:

5 Work in groups.

Analysis of situational problems.

The teacher invites the children to discuss the proposed situations.

Discuss the phrase: “I want all those who offend me to be beaten.”

Seryozha took Vova’s New Year’s gift. Then he approached Sasha, who had been offended by the older guys, and gave the gift to him. Did Seryozha show sympathy or cruelty?

A man was hit by a car on the street. A nearby doctor began to set the victim’s dislocated shoulder. The man screamed in pain. Is the doctor cruel?

Olya was walking down the street and saw a little boy fall off his bicycle. He could not get up and cried a lot. “The baby is unlucky,” thought Olya. How did the girl do? What would you do if you were Olya?

Two friends passed by the gazebo. Inside they saw a man lying. The guys argued all the way: was he unwell or had he consumed an excessive amount of alcohol? How did the guys do? What would you do?

Parents forbade their son to go out because of bad behavior at school. The son did not listen and went outside. How did the boy do?

The teacher asked to open the notebooks, write down the topic and solve the examples. The student defiantly lay down on his desk, he has no desire to work. How does the boy act?

The high school student says that you need to hit Sasha, he called him names yesterday, if you hit him, you’ll do it “cool.” How does a high school student behave? What can a boy do?

VI. Independent work with questionnaires.

Students are asked to fill out questionnaires.

Questionnaire “What will you do in this situation?”

Assignment: mark (S) the answer option that is most acceptable to you in a given situation.

Analysis of responses

Summary of the lesson. Conclusion.

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!