Relationship Between Compassion and Conflict

Compassion seems to require an ability to behold conflicting narratives and stories. Though media often tries to identify a person using very convenient labels, it takes patience to be able to cut through the whole thing and realize that people are deeply complicated beings. I find it interesting, in fact, that something that seems incomprehensible at first might be considered morally wrong, only to be reframed as further details emerge about a person's life and experiences. Being able to take in the details is so much different from grasping at straws and trying to "construct a picture" using insufficient information.
  When I was taking English literature classes in my undergraduate years, I was told the importance of active reading: meaning, one should not just take what one reads as "given" but actively dig beneath the surface to know the details emerging and to form a picture. But sometimes an opposite thing happens, where a person "over-reads" to the point where their interpretation might override any new evidence that comes in. Only when I am open to new details do I see that my interpretation is always "in this moment" and is therefore subject to change at any second in time. This is "going beyond" interpretation to see their translucence as well as their ability to be replaced over time.
   If I am deeply puzzled or confused about a story and why something happened, might the person who perpetrated the act also not have a right to feel puzzled and confused about themselves as well? Years ago, I read a Jungian analyst (Helen Luke, I believe) who contended that sometimes we are not even capable of understanding or appreciating why our souls behave the way they do. We tend to subscribe to a straightforward notion of "I do something with X reason", only to realize that our reason is often framed in retrospect of a decision for which a variety of different inputs had previously existed. Compassion seems to come from realizing complexity: things don't happen for one particular reason but often co-arise out of a sea of complexity.
   I tend to think lately that one cannot truly embody compassion unless they can see complexity.