{"id":1874,"date":"2026-03-12T22:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/volkanartz.w23.fr\/?p=1874"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:16:00","slug":"empathie-compassion-et-mal-de-dents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/empathie-compassion-et-mal-de-dents\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy, compassion and... toothache"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">L&#8217;adage le dit pourtant : on ne change pas une \u00e9quipe qui gagne !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Big mistake of mine : I've trust my dentist.<br>Pour faire au plus court, j\u2019ai voulu me d\u00e9barrasser de vieux \u00ab&nbsp;plombages&nbsp;\u00bb au mercure (qui avaient pourtant tenu 30 ans sans signe de faiblesse), au b\u00e9n\u00e9fice des formidables solutions modernes\u2026 Big mistake : l\u2019une des dents n\u2019a pas aim\u00e9 la transition et s\u2019est impun\u00e9ment f\u00eal\u00e9e.&nbsp; Au r\u00e9sultat des courses, une couronne est devenue n\u00e9cessaire &#8211; le genre de truc que je ne souhaite \u00e0 aucun ennemi (si j&#8217;en avais), car \u00e7a fait mal, tr\u00e8s mal !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1342\" src=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1875\" style=\"width:382px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png 1500w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-800x716.png 800w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-250x224.png 250w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-768x687.png 768w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-13x12.png 13w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">About our inaptitude to understand the other\u2019s pain<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s get to the core of this post : one another\u2019s pain\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alors que ma ch\u00e8re et tendre \u00e9pouse m&#8217;expliquait \u00e0 quel point sa propre exp\u00e9rience avait \u00e9t\u00e9 douloureuse, je l&#8217;\u00e9coutais avec toute mon&nbsp; attention. Et pourtant, ne songeais-je pas, en mon fort int\u00e9rieur : &#8220;c\u2019est sans doute une situation p\u00e9nible, mais \u00e0 moi, \u00e7a n&#8217;arrivera clairement pas ! Apr\u00e8s tout, la couronne transitoire ne m&#8217;avait pas fait tellement mal, alors pourquoi en irait-il autrement avec la d\u00e9finitive ?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1078\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1877\" style=\"width:407px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2.png 1078w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2-800x401.png 800w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2-250x125.png 250w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2-768x385.png 768w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-2-18x9.png 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1078px) 100vw, 1078px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or, comme dit le pessimisme : &#8220;\u00e7a ne peut pas \u00eatre pire&#8221;\u2026 Ce \u00e0 quoi l&#8217;\u00e9ternel optimiste r\u00e9pond : &#8220;mais si, \u00e7a peut !&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s the optimist was right : when we got to the final stage, the pain became unbearable.<br>Essayez donc d\u2019imaginer : la dent semble \u00e0 vif ; la moindre pression sur le haut et elle s&#8217;enflamme d&#8217;un seul coup.<br>Certes, cela prouve qu&#8217;elle est vivante, mais tout se passe comme ci quelqu&#8217;un venait en chatouiller le nerf ! De plus, comme, malgr\u00e9 mes efforts d\u2019\u00e9vitement, l&#8217;exp\u00e9rience se r\u00e9p\u00e8te encore et encore, une douleur sourde subsiste entre les pics\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Si j&#8217;\u00e9cris tout cela sur le vif de l\u2019exp\u00e9rience (c&#8217;est le cas de le dire), c&#8217;est parce que je mesure \u00e0 quel point nous sommes incapables de comprendre ce que vit autrui.<br>Of course, it's still possible to grasp it intellectually, but that remains quite mental and rather cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Je lis actuellement un excellent bouquin d&#8217;un rescap\u00e9 du goulag et s&#8217;il d\u00e9crit effectivement les s\u00e9vices que le syst\u00e8me et ses sbires lui ont fait subir, et bien que cela nous laisse r\u00e9ellement songeur, il reste pourtant rare d&#8217;\u00eatre en r\u00e9elle compassion.<br>En l&#8217;occurrence, suite \u00e0 cette exp\u00e9rience personnelle, je comprends ce que peut repr\u00e9senter la torture\u2026 et je comprends aussi qu&#8217;il est possible de faire avouer n&#8217;importe quoi, \u00e0 n&#8217;importe qui, y compris un crime qu&#8217;il n&#8217;a pas commis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" src=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1878\" style=\"width:433px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png 640w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3-250x140.png 250w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3-18x10.png 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Marathon Man&#8221; (r\u00e9alis\u00e9 par John Schlesinger, 1976), extrait de cette <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=2xBJERznOgA\">this mythical couple of sequences<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>De la force de l&#8217;art<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Je recours une fois encore \u00e0 cet extrait de Jugement \u00e0 Nuremberg, car il exprime mieux qu&#8217;aucun autre la capacit\u00e9 mobilisatrice de l&#8217;art dramatique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Avec cette s\u00e9quence (en deux extraits successifs), nous percevons \u00e9motionnellement la souffrance d&#8217;autrui et, pour le coup, sommes en empathie :<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Montgomery Clift in Judgment at Nuremberg - Part 1\/2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_T_gb1QLlko?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Montgomery Clift in Judgment at Nuremberg - Part 2\/2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vQltcMFirsc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This awakening keeps going, far after the movie itself. It actually creates a true psychic baggage (as if we had experienced the pain firsthand). This will able us to mobilize this emotional memory again later on. In this perspective, true Art changes us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s also possible to experience this kind of resonance, with the reading of Svetlana Alexievich literary testimonies.<br>For those who don\u2019t know her work yet, it is actually based on the recollection of soliloquies, oral testaments (partly rewritten), which put the reader inside the psyche of the narrator. In other words, this is an emotional relation from person to person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Globally her work has ups and downs, but two books truly shine : \"words of Chernobyl\", and \"secondhand time : the last of the Soviets\".<br>The following extract is (SPOILER) very hard to withstand. But this family tragedy helps us to find our own way and to enlighten our own choices, in the complexity of modern life (was the nuclear power worth this ?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"830\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1879\" style=\"width:439px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4.png 830w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4-800x492.png 800w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4-250x154.png 250w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4-768x472.png 768w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4-18x12.png 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The ghost city of Prypiat, close to the Chernobyl power plant<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Extract from \"Voices of Chernobyl\", with the words of a victim (translated by Keith Gessen)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-71497cd3-40c4-4e99-855c-478ca280ef42\"><em>My little daughter\u2014she\u2019s different. She\u2019s not like the others. She\u2019s going to grow up and ask me: \u201cWhy aren\u2019t I like the others?\"<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-4b0df7d1-908b-4775-8247-9be3c0a89830\"><em>When she was born, she wasn\u2019t a baby, she was a little sack, sewed up everywhere, not a single opening, just the eyes. The medical card says: \u201cGirl, born with multiple complex pathologies: aplasia of the anus, aplasia of the vagina, aplasia of the left kidney.\" That\u2019s how it sounds in medical talk, but more simply: no pee-pee, no butt, one kidney. On the second day I watched her get operated on, on the second day of her life. She opened her eyes and smiled, and I thought that she was about to start crying. But, God, she smiled!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-ce7f8287-5e7c-4bc9-bc21-527a2d37e730\"><em>The ones like her don\u2019t live, they die right away. But she didn\u2019t die, because I loved her. In four years she\u2019s had four operations. She\u2019s the only child in Belarus to have survived being born with such complex pathologies. I love her so much. [Stops.] I won\u2019t be able to give birth again. I wouldn\u2019t dare. I came back from the maternity ward, my husband would start kissing me at night, I would lie there and tremble: we can\u2019t, it\u2019s a sin, I'm scared. I heard the doctors talking: \u201cThat girl wasn\u2019t born in a shirt, she was born \nin a suit of armor. If we showed it on television, not a single mother would give birth.\u201d That was about our daughter. How are we supposed to love each other after that?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-b58a5bde-d230-40a1-83a0-7835f5476ec4\"><em>I went to church and told the minister. He said I needed to pray for my sins. But no one in my family ever killed anyone. What am I guilty of? First they wanted to evacuate our village, and then they crossed it off their lists\u2014the government didn\u2019t have enough money. And right around then I fell in love. I got married. I didn't know that we weren\u2019t allowed to love here. Many years ago, my grandmother read in the Bible that there will be a time when everything is thriving, everything blossoming and fruitful, and there will be many fish in the rivers and animals in the forest, but man won\u2019t be able to use any of it. And he won\u2019t be able to propagate himself in his likeness, to continue his line. I listened to the old prophecies like they were scary fairy tales. I didn\u2019t believe them. \nTell everyone about my daughter. Write it down. She\u2019s four years old and she can sing, dance, she knows poetry by heart. Her mental development is normal, she isn't any different from the other kids, only her games are different. She doesn\u2019t play \u201cstore,\u201d or \u201cschool\u201d\u2014she plays \u201chospital.\" She gives her dolls shots, takes their temperature, puts them on IV. If a doll dies, she covers it with a white sheet. We've been living in the hospital with her for four years, we can\u2019t leave her there alone, and she doesn\u2019t even know that you\u2019re supposed to live at home. When we go home for a month or two, she asks me, \u201cWhen are we going back to the hospital?\u201d That\u2019s where her friends are, that's where they\u2019re growing up.  They made an anus for her. And they\u2019re forming a vagina. After the last operation her urinary functioning completely broke down, and they were unable to insert a catheter\u2014they\u2019ll need more operations for that. But from here on out they've advised us to seek medical help abroad. Where are we going to get tens of thousands of dollars if my husband makes 120 dollars a month?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-300e08f0-9187-4f75-98e3-3d5cb0e00748\"><em>One professor told us quietly: \u201cWith her pathologies, your child is of great interest to science. You should write to hospitals in other countries. They would be interested.\" So I write. [Tries not to cry.] I write that every half hour we have to squeeze out her urine manually, it comes out through artificial openings in the area of her vagina. Where else is there a child in the world who has to have her urine squeezed out of her every half hour? And how much longer can it go on? No one knows the effect of small doses of radiation on the organism of a child. Take my girl, even if it's to experiment. I don't want her to die. I'm all right with her becoming a lab frog, a lab rabbit, just as long as she lives. [Cries.] I\u2019ve written dozens of letters. Oh, God!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-2054b838-22e7-4727-a9df-5dd7500b2962\"><em>She doesn\u2019t understand yet, but someday she'll ask us: why isn't she like everyone else? Why can\u2019t she love a man? Why can\u2019t she have babies? Why won't what happens to butterflies ever happen to her? What happens to birds? To everyone but her? I wanted\u2014I should have been able to prove\u2014so that\u2014I wanted to get papers\u2014so that she\u2019d know\u2014when she grew up\u2014it wasn\u2019t our fault, my husband and I, it wasn\u2019t our love that was at fault. [Tries again not to cry.] I fought for four years\u2014with the doctors, the bureaucrats\u2014I knocked on the doors of important people. It took me four years to finally get a paper from the doctors that confirmed the connection between ionized radiation (in small doses) and her terrible condition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-fa14907a-74ff-4b28-b645-531b6186dbce\"><em>They refused me for four years, they kept telling me: \u201cYour child is a victim of a congenital handicap.\" What congenital handicap? She\u2019s a victim of Chernobyl! I studied my family tree\u2014nothing like this has ever happened in our family. Everyone lived until they were eighty or ninety. My grandfather lived until he was 94. The doctors said: \u201cWe have instructions. We are supposed to call incidents of this type general sicknesses. In twenty or thirty years, when we have a database about Chernobyl, we'll begin connecting these to ionized radiation. But for the moment science doesn't know enough about it.\u201d But I can't wait twenty or thirty years. I wanted to sue them. Sue the government. They called me crazy, laughed at me, like, There were children like these in ancient Greece, too. One bureaucrat yelled at me: \u201cYou want Chernobyl privileges! Chernobyl victim funds!\u201d How I didn't faint in his office, I'll never know.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-939068cb-d069-44ae-830e-e9fb44411d87\"><em>There was one thing they didn't understand\u2014didn't want to understand\u2014I needed to know that it wasn't our fault. It wasn't our love. [Breaks down. Cries.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-d517cbf7-b952-4697-ba94-76108a11353c\"><em>This girl is growing up\u2014she's still a girl\u2014I don't want you to print our name\u2014even our neighbors\u2014even other people on our floor don't know. I'll put a dress on her, and a handkerchief, and they say, \u201cYour Katya is so pretty.\u201d Meanwhile I give pregnant women the strangest looks. I don't look at them, I kind of glance at them real quick. I have all these mixed feelings: surprise and horror, jealousy and joy, even this feeling of vengeance. One time I caught myself thinking that I look the same way at the neighbors' pregnant dog\u2014at the bird in its nest . . .<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-27daf624-91ee-4c51-905d-4d6a8621f73e\"><em>My girl . . .<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-14d02efa-ff82-4787-ba18-2d81a025ba01\"><em>Larisa Z., mother<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I admit that the two examples above are not very joyful, but they turn an artistic principle into reality. The experience might be harsh, sad and tragic, but something insides changes us\u2026 so that, in the end, the world might be indeed a better place !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"685\" height=\"729\" src=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1880\" style=\"width:298px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-5.png 685w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-5-235x250.png 235w, https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/app\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-5-11x12.png 11w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 685px) 100vw, 685px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I let you think about it and invite you to share your feelings about this question, through the comments section or by email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a future post, we'll think about the subtle difference between empathy and compassion, because the point is not to get sick, but to feel, understand each other, and get stronger collectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">V.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ou comment l&#8217;exp\u00e9rience d&#8217;une &#8220;rage de dent&#8221; nous informe de la difficult\u00e9 de l&#8217;empathie&#8230; mais aussi de la force de l&#8217;Art !<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-impressions","category-reflexions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1874"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/volkanartz.chauss.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}