Forgiveness – a relational process: Research and reflections

Abstract

Through qualitative research based on interviews, I describe how psychoanalytic practitioners perceive forgiveness, a complex subject with cultural, religious and political associations. They see it as important, and sometimes at the heart of the psychoanalytic endeavour. Analytic thinking has enriched what is essentially a concept determined by religions and cultures. The development of the capacity to forgive requires consciousness and empathy, for both self and other, and the need for appropriate metabolizing of aggression.

Keywords:

• Forgiveness
• revenge
• relational

Acknowledgements

Interviewing the survivor of political torture raised the idea of forgiveness as a gift. Working on this research was a gift and I am grateful to colleagues who took part in the research, and, in particular, to Dr Jacques China, my supervisor.

This paper is dedicated to David Ervine, a Northern Ireland politician who died aged 53 on 8th January 2007. He was more of an ‘expert’ in practical forgiveness and reconciliation that most of us will ever be.