#Buffering

An act of using someone else's empathy as a cushion to absorb the excessive heat of the ego. While seeking psychological safety, it turns others into shields, hailed as the winning strategy of modern social interaction. It creates the illusion of stress relief, but often leads to mutual collapse. As one gripes to someone else, only one's own dignity of 'I am caring' is preserved. Pain is transferred, not eliminated—a paradoxical art of contradictions.