As I understand it a distinction is made in psychology between affective empathy and cognitive empathy. Affective empathy is feeling sad when you see someone s

As I understand it a distinction is made in psychology between affective empathy and cognitive empathy. Affective empathy is feeling sad when you see someone sad. Cognitive empathy is the ability to "put yourself in another's shoes", so to speak. Autistic people can come across as lacking empathy because they have difficulty with the latter, but the 'affective' form of empathy is (usually?) quite functional. In fact, there's even some evidence that autistic people have more affective empathy on average, or at least they experience it more intensely. For many people with Asperger's this is perhaps the shittiest part of their condition. In social interaction they can appear quite narcissistic and lacking in empathy, but internally they feel just the same amount of guilt, sadness, or regret as 'regular' people, if not more.