The Concept of Forgiveness in Psychological Health

Abstract

chotherapy. The fundamental question for the therapeutic perspective focuses on the potential value of forgiveness in the healing process. Does forgiveness have a role to play in the search for healing? If so, why does it have value and is it possible to discover ways to assist those individuals struggling to forgive or obtain forgiveness? The concept of forgiveness comes into play when one individual perceives to have damaged or been damaged by another. The individual seeking forgive ness is attempting to reduce the level of guilt felt over the wrong done, while the person demanding that others ask their forgiveness is seeking to extort recompense for damage caused. There are other methods of guilt reduction, e.g. denial, projection of responsibility onto the other, etc. However, unlike most other methods of guilt reduction, forgiveness addresses the damaged re lationship and in this respect deals directly with the apparent cause of feelings of guilt. Those using the method of forgiveness attempt to put things right by either correcting the wrong done or by operating a mechanism of compensa tion. In this way the guilt felt is reduced. Other methods of guilt reduction tend to focus principally on making the individual feel less uncomfortable. Whether one is qualitatively or quantitatively better for the individual remains a question. The relevance of forgiveness and its relationship to healing is even more significant for individuals who believe in God as the source of ultimate for giveness. Situations often arise in which the person able to provide forgiveness is unable or unwilling to participate in the process (e. g. distance, death, where abouts unknown, refusal etc.). In addition there are cases in which the injured party is unaware of any damage and in some instances confession could make a bad situation worse. In all these circumstances the individual's idea of God and the part He is seen to play in the forgiveness mechanism, may be used to facilitate the healing process. Christian teaching indicates that any injury done to another undermines the relationship between the perpetrator and God. As a consequence even without the participation of the injured party, the rela