I have empathy for the ML's condition. At the same time, he's one of those "sensitive people" who are hyper-sensitive to their own slightest feeling and emotion, and yet so oblivious of other people's emotions that empathy is pretty much a closed book to them. It's an extremely common phenomenon, and I've seen it in my own family, my neighbors, at school, and nearly every work place I've been at in the last fifty years. Some folk are just going to be "all about me!"
The Baby Bequest(Brewster Baby Boom Book 1)