Compassion verses Empathy

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Do you find that people mix these terms up?
I do.

Empathy - The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

vs

Compasion - sympathetic concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

Personally, I can have a surprisingly compassionate heart, however, I struggle immensly with empathy as I cannot read the mind of, or understand the complex inner world, of another. I simply cannot walk in their shoes and other peoples reactions to things constantly surprise me. I have been this way since I was a child and often find myself confused.

Does anyone else feel there is a problem in regards to this out there?

To be honest I have been taught to use those interchangeably which could be wrong. Philip K. Dick made a big deal out of it in the Voigt-Kampff test, which definitely tested for compassion more than anything, yet he called it empathy.

When NTs define empathy, they mean "caring, understanding, helpful, etc".

When Aspies define empathy, they mean "emotional manipulation". *

When NTs can't put themselves in the shoes of people going through something they haven't experienced, they still have empathy.
When Aspies can't put themselves in the shoes of people going through something they haven't experienced, they lack empathy.


When an NT bullies someone, no matter how severely, they still have empathy but are just using it negatively.
When an Aspie bullies someone, even just light teasing, they lack empathy.

* Then everyone says that psychopaths lack empathy, but isn't emotional manipulation is what psychopaths are the best at?

Maybe compassion is another term for "emotional empathy".

I've heard that psychopaths have great empathy, but no sympathy. They understand what others are thinking very well, but they use that to control them and take advantage of them, not help them. Aspies, OTOH, are more likely to want to help, but not know how.