I'm a 35 y.o. male and I have the opposite problem with equally crappy consequences. I'm excessively empathetic but obsessively analytic. If someone is suffering, I can think of nothing else but what they feel like while puzzling over why they feel that way and what the obvious logical solution would be. Emotion rarely follows logic, and I should know that with my illness. Yet, I cannot control the compulsion to try to understand. I have destroyed friendships by over-analyzing and being hypo-manic and overconfident in my assumptions. I get paranoid about affecting others with my depressive moods, so I avoid social activity unless there is some sort of distraction from my internal thoughts. What do I do about that? I go somewhere with lots of people and sit there and analyze their lives, emotions, reactions, relationships... I had to give up 16 years of a career because of my inability to separate work relationships from actual friendships. When they then fail to reciprocate my overblown trust, I am destroyed, I crash, and the cycle begins again.

Maybe if you find some middle-ground; some way to bond with another person you have no prior interaction with. The australian is a terrific example, even though it didn't work. Perhaps if you look at a relationship as an ongoing project and set yourself goals of what to learn about that person, you'll be able to trick yourself into a lasting bond. Peolpe are one hell of a project, and a long term one, and you like those, right? (oooo... psychology)