Meesh Carra, a psychic medium in Massachusetts, first came across the term “empath” on a spiritual journey, when she began exploring “energy work” and “intuitive development.”
“As a psychic medium, I started to notice that I was absorbing the emotions of those around me, especially during readings and healing sessions,” Carra told Salon. “When I came across the idea of being an empath, it resonated with my entire identity.”
Since then, Carra said being an empath is a key part of who she is. It has helped her realize that her sensitivity is not a “flaw,” but a “superpower” that is one of the “best parts” of her identity.
“It shapes how I interact with my clients, friends and family and how I choose to show up in the world,” Carra said. “It has allowed me to deeply connect with people on their spiritual journeys and offer support in a compassionate, intuitive way.”
Today, the term empath is popular in various spiritual and wellness circles — even making its way into mainstream vernacular. Obviously stemming from the word “empathetic,” and “empathy,” meaning the ability to understand and share another's feelings, being an empath has taken on a new meaning of its own. It’s not just feeling compassion for another person, but — as Carra said — having a “superpower” to feel other peoples’ emotions. It is an identity used to make sense of a person’s increased sensitivity and to perhaps connect with others who feel they are more sensitive than the average person, too.
In the digital age, this has manifested itself in various forms, from so-called “survival courses” for empaths to quizzes akin to personality tests to determine if you are an empath. According to Google Trends, the term started to steadily increase in Google searches in 2016 and skyrocketed at various points between 2019 and 2022.
Stephanie Alice Baker, an associate professor of sociology at City St George’s-University of London who studies wellness, misinformation, and conspiracies, told Salon the term “empath” has been used in popular culture since the 2010s.
“It began to rise in popularity following the publication of Judith Orloff’s book on the subject in 2017, peaking during the pandemic,” Baker said, adding that it’s an extension of the self-help genre in general that positions the reader “as special and more sensitive than the environment they inhabit.”
“It is part of what connects the author with their audience,” Baker said. “I see the popular use of the word ‘empath’ as part of this mode of identification and community building.”
Not only has it touched alternative wellness circles, but there’s also a political history to the term as well. Since the early aughts, empathy has been in the spotlight on and off. In 2006, former President Barack Obama told students that the country was suffering from an “empathy deficit.” He called on young people to learn “to recognize ourselves in each other.” In 2010, a study from the University of Michigan found that empathy in college students had been on the decline since 1979.
“We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000,” Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research, said at the time. “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.”
Before Obama and the headlining survey on declining empathy in young people, former president Bill Clinton used a political catchphrase: “I feel your pain.” Ronald Purser, a professor of management at San Francisco State University and author of "McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality," told Salon he associates the term “empath” with Bill Clinton when he reflects on it. “But Clinton didn’t announce to everyone ‘Hey, you know that I am an empath, right?’”
Today, he said there are some people who “weaponize their empathy.”
“Self-identifying as an empath is a preemptive strategy, signaling to others, “Hey, you know I am hyper-sensitive, so if I over-react and behave like a jerk and become hysterical, if you are feeling manipulated, I am off the hook,’” he said. “I would suspect that many so-called empaths have untreated psychological issues.”
Purser said this is because empaths are “frequently in a state of emotional distress, but they mask that reality, confusing it for some superpower.”
Even real empathy has its problems, he said, “if it blinds us to the problems and tribulations of larger groups outside of our immediate proximity.”
Notably, an “empath” is not a technical psychological term. However, when one digs deeper into the world of empaths, there are different subtypes. There’s a “physical empath,” who is sensitive to the pain of others. An “‘intuitive empath,” who is skilled at picking up the thoughts of others. And even “dark empaths,” who use their empathy to benefit themselves.
Megan Griffith said she used to identify as an empath, but realized she was actually autistic.
“I first heard about being an empath in 2012, when I had first started college and was trying to figure myself out,” Griffith said. A few years later, she received an autism diagnosis.
“While I have very high emotional empathy, I have pretty low cognitive empathy, and this combination can make communicating with others difficult,” Griffith said. “At the time, understanding myself as an ‘empath’ helped me to see my high sensitivity as a gift rather than a curse, and it helped shift me from self-loathing into self-acceptance.”
