Painting by Yuliia Holub

From "Complex Empathy" mini-series (2025). Complex empathy is the ability to feel and understand the complex, ambiguous states of others without simplifying them to obvious emotional markers. In difficult situations, it's easier to distance oneself than to accept reality and make one's own willful choice. This zone of distancing creates a field for speculation: those who seek the position of victim transform their experiences into dramatic, instantly readable images accessible to simple empathy. This phenomenon becomes particularly dangerous in social or political contexts. Animal empathy allows manipulators to "draw in" people with low emotional intelligence, and “paralyze” empaths with feelings of pity. Complex empathy trains a subtle sense of balance, enables one to see the whole picture, make independent decisions, and resist simplified emotional signals. If neither simple nor complex empathy works, people often take the side of the "strong." In society, this means that tolerating violence, hidden behind the mask of victimhood, allows it to grow.