Imagine a situation where a small child is crying. His friend sees this, appears to be upset by the situation and cries himself. After a while the second child lashes out at the first. Is this aggressive behaviour? Is it anti-social behaviour? Is the child a potential bully? Or is the child feeling the hurt of the first child and doing the only thing he can think of to end his friend's misery?
He has shown empathy for his classmate but is not able to cope with these feelings. Hence he uses the only approach he can think of to alleviate the crying which is linked to his friend's suffering.
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