The Web Between Us
Compassion, Connection, and the Roles We Share
“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.” — Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s insight reminds us that compassion is not an emotion—it’s an orientation. It does not arise from pity or performative kindness. It comes from understanding that we belong to one another. Compassion, at its deepest level, is the recognition that no story unfolds in isolation. In Building the Case (BTC), we treat compassion not as sentimentality, but as structure—a relational frame that sees each life not as separate, but entangled in the web of others. It is this awareness that allows lawyers, therapists, and advocates to step into the lives of others without condescension, and with clarity.
In the courtroom and beyond, interdependence is everywhere. A juror’s bias was shaped by their own experience of vulnerability. A client’s defiance is rooted in a lineage of betrayal. A lawyer’s exhaustion is mirrored by a witness’s reluctance to be seen. Merton’s quote is not abstract philosophy—it is a blueprint for relational literacy. BTC teaches that to build the case is to build relationship first: between lawyer and client, client and jury, witness and truth. Compassion allows us to see not just the individual in pain, but the system that shaped it—and our role within it.
In psychodrama, this principle becomes action. When one person steps into the role of another—whether friend, judge, or parent—they do not perform sympathy. They live into the interdependence. They feel the consequences of choices. They sense the echoes of harm. And they experience the truth that roles are shared, borrowed, inherited. Moreno built the action method on this: healing emerges through encounter, and encounter is only possible when we recognize that the self is never separate. BTC builds this recognition into every layer of storytelling.
Role theory expands this further. Each role we play—advocate, doubter, protector, outsider—is formed in relationship. No role exists alone. The rescuer cannot be formed without the rescued. The judge without the judged. Compassion in role theory means recognizing that the roles we dislike in others are often distorted versions of roles we’ve carried ourselves. In BTC, we don’t just teach lawyers to find a compelling story—we help them see the full cast of roles at play, and where they, too, are involved.
Sociometry names the invisible threads between people. It asks: Who is drawn to whom? Who feels distant? Who holds unspoken loyalty? These patterns are the fabric of compassion. Because once you see the invisible threads, you can no longer act as if your actions are isolated. In BTC, we map these relational currents. We help advocates understand that the story of a case is not just one person’s narrative—it is the field of relationships that shaped it, and the network of roles that surround it. Compassion, in this frame, is not softness. It is vision.
