This article made me angry, I agree with cleo. It totally misrepresents empathy. we cannot separate empathy and compassion in this way. Compassion without empathy is mere pity, a feeling sorry for someone without understanding. empathy isn't a rational or logical understanding, it is an understanding at an emotional level being able to put yourself in their place and recognising how that feels, this is what leads to compassion. When we want to harm someone we act in an opposite way, we belittle and run them down call them derogatory names and do what we can do to dehumanise them so we can hurt them without harming our image of ourselves, we distance ourselves emotionally. A Torturer cannot be empathetic to their victim because they would feel the pain they are causing, as they destroy their victim they would destroy themselves.