The Forgiving Life: A Pathway to Overcoming Resentment and Creating a Legacy of Love

by Robert D. Enright PhD

Overview

Winner of the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Impact in Psychology

The Forgiving Life offers scientifically supported guidance to help people forgive those in their lives who have acted unfairly and have inflicted emotional hurt.

It does not minimize the devastation of that hurt. It does not require reconciliation with the one who inflicted the hurt. Rather, it describes a process, followed with success by people around the world, to confront the pain, rise above it to forgive, and in so doing, to loosen the grip of depression, anger, and resentment that has soured life.

In this book, noted forgiveness expert Robert D. Enright invites readers to learn the benefits of forgiveness and to embark on a path of forgiveness, leaving behind a legacy of love. Guided by thought-provoking questions, journaling exercises, and Enright’s kind encouragement, readers can chart their own journey through a new life of forgiveness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433810916
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Publication date:	01/15/2012
Series:	APA LifeTools Series
Pages:	371
Sales rank:	993,890
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Robert D. Enright, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has been a leader in the scientific study of forgiveness and its effects since 1985. Time magazine referred to him as "the forgiveness trailblazer." He is the author of more than 100 publications, including five books. In 2022, he received the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology for his innovative work in forgiveness. 

He and his colleagues have developed and tested a pathway to forgiveness that has helped incest survivors, and people in drug rehabilitation, in hospice, in shelters for abused women, and in cardiac units of hospitals, among others. His recent work has been in schools within conflict regions, such as Belfast, Northern Ireland, assisting teachers to deliver forgiveness programs to students.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

I. The Basics

1. A Theory of Forgiveness in Brief
2. If You Are Traumatized

II. Overview of the Forgiveness Process

1. How Telling and Listening to Stories Can Help
2. Forgiveness Is a Process
3. The Work Phase of Forgiveness
4. The Discovery Phase of Forgiveness
5. What Does It Mean to Forgive?

III. Getting Organized

1. The Forgiveness Plan
2. Measuring Your Forgiveness

IV. Forgiving Those Who Have Hurt You

1. Your Forgiveness Pathway
2. How Did You Do in Forgiving?
3. Forgiving Your Parents
4. Forgiveness Between Partners and Within Your Current Family
5. Completing the Triangle of Forgiveness
6. School Days, Work Days, and Other Days
7. Surveying the Landscape From the Mountain Peak

V. Giving the Gift of Forgiveness to Others

1. Questions as You Give Forgiveness to Others
2. Giving Forgiveness Away to Our Children and in Our Communities
3. Your Forgiveness Legacy

Appendix A: Process of How People Forgive Someone Who Was Unjust

Appendix B: Forgiveness Landscape Rating Scale

Appendix C: Personal Forgiveness Scale

Appendix D: The Forgiveness Guidepost Form

Notes

Index

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Thomas Moore

The Forgiving Life is a book to be experienced, not just read. It encourages you to explore the prerequisites of forgiveness, its content and environment, and its demands and rewards. At the end of the book you will have arrived at a new place, a place of greater freedom and vitality. The book is a workshop, a retreat and hours of therapy all rolled into one. (Thomas Moore, PhD, Author, Care of the Soul)

Martin Doblmeier

Robert D. Enright has been a pioneer in the field of forgiveness for a generation. Now he leads us into new territory, offering forgiveness not just as a response to a single act but a whole new way of living. Through stories, conversations, theories, and exercises, he boldly charts a new path that dares to offer nothing less than a new way of life. Daring, courageous, and insightful, this book is for all of us who have been hurt at some time and realize we need to move beyond it. Enright sets the challenge before us, and the reward is nothing less than life renewed. (Martin Doblmeier, PhD, Filmmaker, The Power of Forgiveness)