[One Sip of a Book] Exploring Deep People: 'Humble Empathy'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

The author begins by reflecting on what they have done and what they are currently doing as a psychiatrist. The second story explores ways to be happy despite a difficult and complicated life, and the third story offers words especially for those struggling with depression, anxiety, and wounds. Finally, the book concludes by explaining the mental study we need in the pandemic era. Reading these writings, which sometimes offer deep insights, sometimes generous comfort, and sometimes sharp advice, reminds us that no matter how hard life is, there are plenty of reasons to love it, and that ordinary days of eating, working, and sleeping, as well as the people around us, are incredibly precious.

Everyone becomes determined to "somehow live on" when they feel there is someone beside them who waits together. It is no exaggeration to say that the work of a psychiatrist is simply to quietly wait with someone in pain, holding in their heart a desperate hope that things will get better, even though the exact outcome cannot be known.

-The Time Needed for Psychiatric Treatment

To live a beautiful life, one needs their own story about how to live despite wounds. According to that story, we act and grow. It is a story of a child abandoned and wounded like an orphan who embarks on a journey down a path no one has taken, overcoming obstacles and defeating troublemakers, becoming a warrior in the process.

-How Wounds Heal

Human relationships involve skillfully navigating between closeness and distance, connection and blocking, opening one’s heart and maintaining boundaries, altruism and selfishness. If there is an ultimate human relationship skill, it is to shift one’s stance to the opposite side to regain balance when feeling tilted toward one side.

-The Median That Supports the World

Answering the question “Who am I?” through action is less important than answering “How will I live?” When we devote ourselves to the goals fate has given us, we finally come to know our true selves.

-More Important Than the Question “Who Am I?”

Humble Empathy | Written by Kim Byung-su | The Quest | 16,000 KRW