Intellectualises feelings
You ask how they feel about the divorce and they give you a lucid analysis of attachment styles and custody law.
Rule out first
A professional or cultural setting where feelings aren't discussed. Early days of a shock. A thinking style they use for everything, which isn't avoidance.
What could explain it
Intellectualisation: The analysis replaces feeling when the topic is painful; on safe topics they're more expressive.
Isolation of affect: They can describe the facts of terrible events in a flat voice; the feeling is cut off from the memory.
Alexithymia: They want to answer but genuinely can't name what they feel; a list of words helps.
Autism in adults: Feelings are processed differently and later; they may answer accurately but in a way that sounds detached.
Enneagram Type 5: Investigator: Withdrawal into understanding is how they feel safe; they'll share feelings later, in private, if at all.
A next move
Ask where in their body they notice it. A pause and an answer means alexithymia or late processing; a theory means defence; irritation means you touched something.
If it’s you
When I explain my feelings well, am I also feeling them?