My Narcissist used to describe a skill he had learned when he studied something called Polarity Therapy. He said it was necessary to empty himself emotionally in order to empathize with another and remove their pain. He claimed to have super awareness of everything that was being emoted in his presence, so much so that he lost himself at times when he was in a room full of people absorbing all their emotions. While we dated, he made several references to the ways in which he changed while he was with me. Was he an emotional shape shifter who, like a chameleon, adapted to obtain his Narcissistic supply?
The paradox of his opinion about himself is, of course, lost on him. I juxtapose this reflection about the empathetic being he describes himself as with the demon who stood on my driveway and raged at me on the day of my mother’s funeral when I was alone and completely defenseless against him. Even if we set aside the fact that he and I had been in a romantically intimate relationship for years, can a highly empathic person be capable of inflicting such extreme emotional abuse at such an emotionally critical time? I doubt he has any empathy whatsoever. His purpose was clear … he timed it perfectly.
