Essay: Thoughts on “Compassion Fatigue”

Over the years I have often read or heard about a so-called personal or societal syndrome termed as compassion fatigue.

While wondering to myself about whether it were actually a thing or merely something used as an excuse or convenient rationalization by society to help explain away why people or a society cease caring as well as doing something meaningful on behalf of those most in need and, on a personal or societal level, who are otherwise deliberately indifferent to the plight and needs of others, it came to mind about how in reality there are actually different types of compassion, empathy and love that people or a society might exercise when it comes to others.

There is the unconditional variety and then there is the conditional or contractual variety. 

The former has few if any limits imposed other than what a person or society might selectively set for themselves or itself under the category of setting personal or societal boundaries. 

The latter has certain expectations as well as several boundaries and limitations that it imposes upon those on the receiving end, which appear to have more to do about the needs of the person or society doing the offering and giving than about those who are on the receiving end.

This could help better define and explain why there might be what is termed as compassion fatigue either on an individual or societal basis.

If there is a cure or remedy for compassion fatigue, it would first be in recognizing what it truly represents and why it exists on either a personal or societal level, then changing the focus to truly being about caring for others and their needs rather than mainly being about oneself and one’s own expectations and personal needs, including of being needed and so on.

When unconditional compassion, empathy and love is truly exercised in its fullest by either an individual or a society, there is never any sense of fatigue at play and never a good excuse or reason for doing nothing and being indifferent to the needs of others, particularly those who are most in need.