I remembered reading a paper once that suggested people with NPD were actually pretty good at intellectually interpreting/understanding what other people were experiencing (cognitive empathy). Where the difficulty with empathy came in was in the affective part, emotionally picking up what others are feeling in a felt way. For example, someone might be easily able to tell that someone is sad from their body/verbal cues, but they wouldn't feel sad in response to someone else's sadness. Or joy at their joy, etc etc.

I'm wondering whether this is in line with people here's own experiences or if there are any other thoughts about it? I think the study was survey based so I'd love to actually hear some subjective experiences.