In professional jobs dealing with medicine or human beings in general such as doctors, clinical psychologists or physiotherapists, the main question is how much empathy or compassion, for example, should a doctor have towards his/her patients? There is a lot of speculation about it. Some people say that there is no time for empathy and that we should simply get down to the facts. For example, GPs who do not specify a certain area usually see a multitude of patients in a day, so they only have a set time in which they can interact with their patients. As a result, some believe that the designated time should be used to tell the facts of test results or the outcome of why patients came in the first place. Doctors and professionals who deal with human beings in general should feel empathy towards their patients. There is research that supports not just telling patients the facts and instead feeling empathy towards them. According to Daniel Goleman (2013), author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, explains that doctors who are reported for misconduct in the United States “generally do not make more medical errors than those who go unreported. The main difference... often depends on the tenor of the doctor-patient relationship. Those who are reported, it turns out, have fewer signs of emotional connection” (p. 109). This means that the reported doctors may not have listened to their patients or had a close relationship with them, so the patients did not feel comforted and understood but just another number in that doctor's record. However, this should not mean that the only reason to feel empathy and compassion towards your patients is to not get sued, but feeling empathy towards a person as a patient can have the... middle of paper... I have to succeed to understand myself to understand others. I must have an internal concentration and other focuses so that I can concentrate on my needs and those of my patients. If I want to become a psychologist in the future, I need to learn to tune into people's emotions and learn verbal cues; however, it activates my TPJ circuit in my mind so that I am not distracted by the constant streams of emotions and focus on the task at hand which is helping people live successful lives. Works Cited Goleman, D. (2013). Focus: The hidden engine of excellence. New York: HarperCollinsHalifax, J. (2010). Compassion and the true meaning of empathy [audio file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifaxMcGonigal, J. (2012). The game that can give you 10 more years of life [Audio file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life