Parthena Intze

Our brain is a fantastic problem-solver! But when it comes to emotional issues, it sometimes becomes our own enemy. Not with grand drama, but with many quiet, nagging thoughts: “What if I fail?” or “Why didn’t I do that better?” - and suddenly we’re caught in a spiral that brings us stress, self-doubt, and, not seldomly, physical symptoms. We suffer. The parable from Buddhist teaching about the two arrows beautifully illustrates how we become the creators of our own suffering and how it...

Empathy is one of the most admired and most misunderstood human capacities. If we were asked to sketch a deeply empathic person, we might picture someone warm, generous, and intuitive. A person who notices emotional currents long before anyone else does. And all of that is true. But it is not the whole story. Empathy is not just a nice personality trait. It is a complex psychological, neurobiological, and relational process. When we don’t understand its depth, we misunderstand ourselves. What...

The gas lamps flicker, shadows stretch across the ornate wallpaper. In the center of the rooms stands Paula, wide-eyed, breathing in. Her voice is soft, almost apologetic. “You … you think I‘m insane.” The room answers before her husband does. The dimming gaslight is a choreography designed to make her question her memory, and her very self. Gregory, her husband, steps into the frame, perfectly composed. He does not need to raise his voice. The manipulation is in the careful tilt of his head,...