[Shawn Ellis]

Is it possible to learn emotional empathy?

[Skeezyks]

Thanks for bringing this up. Another PC member asked essentially the same question recently in a thread in one of the other forums. (I don't know off-hand what type of responses, other than mine, he received... if any.)

Unfortunately I don't know the answer to this question. My personal thinking would be that the ability to feel empathy may be heavily influenced by genetics. And if a person doesn't have the genetic make-up for it, it may not be possible for them to feel empathy the way most people do.

But I would certainly think it would be possible for a person to develop a sufficiently deep understanding of the concept to be able to have at least an intellectual comprehension of empathy & to be able to apply that understanding in appropriate situations. There are for example practices, within the Buddhist tradition, aimed specifically at developing one's ability to empathize with others. The Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön has written extensively about these practices in her various books.

[AliceKate]

I believe it is possible. After all, everyone learns it as a child and we all know that learning things as an adult is more difficult and no matter what you learn, you may not reach a 'mothertongue' level, but you may learn to speak somewhat anyways.