"It's a complete struggle just to co-exist." I think that's part of the lesson 
My mother falls under a "cluster B" personality disorder, which is borderline, histrionic,narcissist, and anti-social, accept she doesn't really fall under the anti-social catagory part of it. She is also German. Most of my family is very easy going, but I have been told by many of my mom's siblings that she is just like their dad, accept she doesn't drink. When I was growing up I figured she was a control freak, "do as I say, not as I do" type deal. She was overly strict, I was not allowed to question her and I hated her. I was more passive/submissive, as was my dad and she ruled us with an iron fist, until I turned 12. This is when I started fighting against it and...well, let's just say , it got real ugly!
Then I went to nursing school, I was studying mental health nursing and worked in the field to gain experience. This opened my eyes when I met a woman who suffered from mania. She was alot like my mother in her "adhd" and the personality disorders seemed to fit. As we got older, the roles began to change as I assumed more of an adult role and realized how much of a child she actually was. I understand why she was the way she was, why she does what she does now, and blah,blah,blah, but I also began to look into soul ages. I noticed that I gravitated towards "narcissists" in relationships, and I realized something, they ALL acted like my mother. They are like a bunch of children! I figured out that if you research soul ages, (you know how some people are "old souls" and some people are "young souls" narcissists actually have alot of traits of young children. They are often selfish, self-pleasing, attention seeking, it's their way or a tantrum. On a deeper level then the brain and mental health, I have come to the conclusion that these people are very young souls, they haven't evolved into maturity. Empath's are often older souls that have the patience and ability to nurture these "children". Our job is to help them grow and evolve on a soul level. They serve a couple purposes actually. The first, they help us to learn boundaries, meaning that Empath's are typically quiet, don't like conflict, people pleaser's and pushover's. We usually will become a doormat before beginning a war. These people teach us to stand up for ourselves. Since Empath's often self sacrifice and rarely thing of themselves, these people force us to think about ourselves, our safety, our well-being. We are forced to stand up, we're forced to figure out boundaries, what we will tolerate and what we won't, to speak up, to fight back and to learn when to walk away! Without these "children", would we ever learn to do this? probably not. Does it mean we should seek them out? No, they will find us on their own,lol. Since I took the control away from my mother, I am often the one that takes the lead, I explain situations, she doesn't like, but she depends on it. I set the boundaries a long time ago. I used to think she was the strongest woman on the planet and then realized that most of her stregnth was forged from fear. She was always competitive with me ( I always hated that) but realized the reason she does it is due to her own feelings of inferiority and low self esteem. This is a common theme with narcissists. It's all about themselves...like small children. They will grow up eventually and if they are in the same soul family, it's going to require alot of patience. But through the extreme oppossites, the two conflicting sides, eventually do create balance.
Regardless of the narcissism, my mother is an Empath and Medium, though she will never admit or accept this
They can be Empath's because Empath is merely someone who is more sensitive to psychic energy. We channel energy and take it on as our own. Just because we can feel someone else's pain, we also channel people's joy, we can channel behaviors. Trying not to downplay it, but when you boil it all down, all it is is a sensitivity to energy and and exchange of energy. And how that energy is used will depend on the person receiving that energy.
Anyway's on the greater scheme of things I can see the purpose of it, but it doesn't mean I have to like it
Anyway's, this is just one perception. 