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Compassion And Suppression In Caregivers: Twin Masks Of Tragedy And Joy Of Caring, Emanuele Maria Merlo, Sean M. Mcnabney, Fabio Frisone, Federica Sicari, Mihai Paunica, Catalina Motofei, Salvatore Settineri

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Background: Compassionate caregiving is a critical skill for workers among the helping professions, but the degree of empathy required by caregivers can place high demands on their mental and emotional resources. While many professionals employ successful coping strategies to mitigate these stressors, others experience compassion fatigue or burnout from emotional exhaustion. The objective of this research was to evaluate the relationships between caregivers’ demographic/career variables, compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and psychodynamic defense mechanisms such as suppression, repressive function, regression in the service of the Ego, and rationalization. Methods: Participants were 250 caregivers with 178 (71,2%) women and 72 men (28,8%) …