In the recent decades we can observe the intensifi cation of crisis in the marriage and family. In this situation many researches are undertaken to explain the reason of such state in order to prevent it in the future. The aim of the paper is to study the role of empathy in family life. Firstly there have been presented the most basic characteristics and functions of the empathy phenomena that have been studied in psychology. Then the paper explains successive stages of family development within the framework of systems theory and in this context the signifi cance of empathy sensitiveness in the prevention and solving the confl icts and crisises in family life have been discussed. Basing on the theoretical analyses presented in the literature and the results of empirical research it has been shown that empathy is one of the most fundamental factors determining satisfactory interpersonal relations within the family, concerning both the correct family functioning as well as overcoming the inevitable confl icts and crisises that appear in family life.