The flows of compassion to help create a more connected world

Abstract

Compassion involves noticing suffering in self and others, and then trying to help alleviate and prevent it. At its core, therefore, compassion is relational, and it permeates through all interpersonal relationships, for example, those with partners, children, parents, colleagues, as well as with how individuals relate with strangers or people they dislike. As a result, there is a giver and a receiver of compassion, and how that is experienced in everyday life in these important relationships, can be the critical building blocks to how somebody starts to build their own self-relational style, which is also known as self-compassion. Each of these ‘flows’ of compassion, towards others, receiving, and towards self is shaped by context and impacts mental health. However, research has often focused on the individual, which is insufficient for a population-level understanding. This paper argues that this relational 'flow' framework is the necessary foundation for a new epidemiology of compassion—the study of its distribution and determinants in specified populations. Using this epidemiological lens, this paper: 1) examines the dyadic mechanics of compassionate 'transmission', 2) evaluates the methods to measure these flows, 3) reframes moral boundaries as a way to define 'at-risk' populations, and 4) proposes a systems-level, 'public health' approach to intervention, using healthcare as a key example. What is fundamental is the need for compassion; how to cultivate it at a systems level is a critical question if a safer and more connected world is to be realised.