Fred Luskin, PhD: What Is Forgiveness?

Fred Luskin PhD puts forward his own definition of forgiveness. He suggests that when life doesn’t go according to the way we think it should, it causes us psychological turmoil. Forgiveness provides us with a route back to serenity. For him, forgiveness is about making peace when we don’t get what we want. It’s normal and human to feel anger and all sorts of other powerful emotions when someone does something that harms us, but if we hang on to those feelings we can start to layer up complex stories that create resentment and bitterness that actually only hurts us even more in the long run.