I thought we develop empathy as part of the development of self. I don't know the whole theory of how we get a self, but we begin life onside our mother. She is our world. Then our world expels us and we struggle out and there is the world again, same voice and organ rhythms but brighter and colder and dryer and we must work to be nourished.

We are only aware of consciousness. Slowly we become aware that we exist. We may first exist together with mother. "there is no such thing as a baby alone". Then we realise we exist apart from mother. Does she exist apart from us?

In symbiosis, or the blissful state of being one with mommy, we are the center of her world and she orbits around us. We feel her feelings because we are not separate from her. She feels our feelings too.

Empathy is the many experiences of the wonder of being separate and together, of being mother and infant and then just me.

There is a reason the image of Madonna and child is so central to religion, and why the oldest gods are the mother gods, the woman gods.

I think empathy arises out of those early experiences with mother.

If mother is missing pr.defective or needs us to orbit her...we miss out. I do not know if we can develope.empathy with healing or early wounds. I have know. People who.do not experience empathy. My mother is one. She can be kind and compassionate anyway. I've felt her dismay and confusion about empathic understandings dad and I.shared.

It is a fascinating thing.