Hi @lucylin 😊

it made me understand myself just a little more...

It is wonderful to hear this! Thank you for saying it :D

Given what you detailed here about your family; yes, I would say you can draw from cognitive empathy in order to acknowledge the suffering of others. You may not feel it in your 'heart', but you can appreciate when someone is distressed. It must be tricky to grow up in an environment where people are oblivious to one's pain.

Yep, it turns out that psychopaths can feel empathy. The example you gave here, interestingly, is a very common one! It turns out that psychopaths cry their eyes out when a pet dies. I suppose it was this sort of emotional reaction that pushed neuropsychologists to look a bit further.

This is, apparently, mostly because of cognitive empathy, though. But they just seem to be able to switch it on and off 'at will'. It is an interesting body of research, which I am not familiar with in great depth, thus far.

Well, thank you for coming around once again!
I wish you and Lucy a great week ahead! :D