“While we as empathic beings want to feel compassion for those in pain, that does not change the reality that forgiving an abuser to the extent of remaining with them, excusing the abuse, minimizing and denying it only perpetuates the abuse cycle and leads to further, sometimes even lethal, harm to the victim… The problem isn’t a lack of compassion – the problem is that partners of abusive narcissists show way too much compassion for their abusers and often remain in the abusive cycle so long that they don’t even know who they are by the end of it.’”

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