Apathy is a lack of motivation or interest, with a neutral mood and a sense of indifference. This tends to be seen as lack of effort or productivity and a dependence on others to structure activities. There is often also a lack of concern about oneself, and an indifferent response to events that would usually cause emotion, such as receiving bad news.
In contrast to depression, apathy displays a notable absence of sadness and depressed mood – there is a lack of emotion, either happy or sad.
The word apathy comes from the Greek ‘a’ meaning ‘without’ and ‘pathos’ meaning ‘passion’.