Comment by Yizahi

At a guess, he does have empathy. He didn't know how to get that empathy across, to the other person, and these are the stages he went through in learning how to do it. You see, the intent and the execution can be completely or partially divorced in some people. I can truly empathize the other person, the beginning of the process is there, but I wouldn't know the right words, tone or gestures hot to proceed with my empathy. And then it is fifty/fifty, maybe a person would decide to ignore my lack of execution and will start deep dialog on their own and then my empathy can allow me to honestly respond and continue it. Or maybe they will decide not to do it and the deep dialog wouldn't happen in the first place.

Not every closed-in and awkward person is lacking empathy.