Empath

An empath is somebody who has a lot of empathy.

Apparently the partners of narcissists are likely to be highly empathic people. In fact, the term ‘empath’ is synonymous with being the opposite of narcissistic.

Personally, I don’t fully buy into this (but I’m not a psychologist).

• As the husband of a narcissist, I’m supposedly very likely to be an “empath”. Hmmmm… I’m not sure I employ as much empathy as I should. Empathy is something that needs to be exercised and worked on, it’s a skill.
• I’m not fully convinced that when I’m being empathic that I’m not just mistaken my own feelings as the other persons. I mean, am I really feeling the other persons emotions, am I that open and attentive? Or am I just wallowing in my own emotions of which I have many?
• Codependency accounts for a lot of my behaviors, and those look an awful lot like empathy.

Anyway… it’s essential to remember that everybody is different and unique. It certainly is true that some people are better at empathy than others, there’s no disputing that so I guess the term itself is valid. Whether or not I’m one, the jury is still out on that I’m afraid.