Empathy is the ability to understand and feel what the other person is going through. The ability to put yourself in other people's shoes is essential for our survival as a species. It's a pro social quality.
The problem comes when a person only has cognitive empathy to the detriment of affective (emotional) empathy.
This is very common in cluster B personality disorders.
However, in this video I explain why I don't agree with the idea that narcissists have NO empathy at all. And we look at empathy in Histrionic PD, and Borderline PD.
Malignant Narcissists who are well known for being the least likely to put themselves in somebody else's shoes, they too have some kind of empathy. The cognitive one. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to manipulate others so well.
They need the ability to understand others so that they can obtain what they are after: narcissistic supply.
Sounds creepy, and it really is, but they use it (cognitive empathy) to their own advantage. Very narcissistic and damaging to others, indeed!
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