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Interesting question. I've often been accused of being empathic.
I tend to think only the intellectual concept of empathy can be taught.
Emotional empathy, in my experience, is either there or it's not. It's a genuine reading or connection that some of us are either born with or developed rather young. I believe it can be cultivated, in early childhood, but I don't think there's much you can do to change one's core thinking as an adult, other than allowing them to gain further intellectual empathy. I think lots of reading or any means of exposure to situations other than those lived, would be conducive to developing this type of empathy.
I'd be interested to know what others think, too.
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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain
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