Tagged: “forgiveness”
Dr. Suzanne Freedman Has a Forgiveness Article Published with the Des Moines Register Newspaper
Dr. Suzanne Freedman
On December 6, 2025, Dr. Suzanne Freedman, a professor at The University of Northern Iowa, had a guest column in the Des Moines Register entitled “What We Get Wrong about Forgiveness and Why It Matters.” In this insightful work, she makes the point that forgiving a person for an injustice does not require an apology. Otherwise, too much power is given to the one who acted unfairly. She further argues that to forgive is not to automatically reconcile, especially if the other remains untrustworthy. Further, to forgive is not only to give up anger because forgiveness, as a moral virtue, challenges the forgiver to see the humanity in the other person. This can take time, and the one who was offended should resist being pressured into a quick and superficial forgiveness. Thank you, Dr. Freedman, for your careful clarification regarding forgiveness for the general public. The article can be accessed here:
When people displace their anger onto others, do you think this is primarily unconscious or is it a deliberate and conscious process?
Psychological defenses, such as displacing one’s own discontent onto others, are often unconscious. One goal of traditional psychotherapies is to make this conscious so the person can reduce the displacement. When the imposition of discontent, such as excessive anger, onto others is conscious, this usually involves a deliberate choice to seek revenge. In this case, the one seeking revenge needs to seriously consider forgiveness for the sake of the other and the self. Hanging on to this deep anger can be harmful to both the other and oneself.
If I don’t feel like giving a gift to the one who offended me, does this mean I am failing in the forgiveness process?
No, it does not mean failure. It only means that you have not reached that part of the forgiveness process yet. If you have already done some of the work of forgiving, such as examining an accurate definition of forgiveness, seeing the other person as truly human despite the offense, and beginning to soften your heart toward this person, you definitely have been walking the path of forgiveness.
One reason for educating children about forgiveness is to prepare them for the injustices they will experience in adulthood. I also suppose that a longitudinal study to explore this from childhood to adulthood would take at least 20 years, so it probably hasn’t been done yet. Would this be a worthwhile study?
This would be an amazing study and also a difficult study because, as you say, the researchers would have to wait decades to see the effects of the forgiveness education in adulthood. Yet, for now, this is an important hypothesis. Locating the children when they are adults might be very difficult, especially in conflict zones of the world, where geographic mobility is common. Yet, your idea is a great one worth keeping in mind by researchers.
I am wondering about the idea that forgiveness involves, as you say, “giving a gift” to the one who was unfair. I can imagine, in some cases, that this could backfire, with the other person rejecting the gift and even being critical of it. What do you think?
Yes, the one who decides to give a gift to the other is taking a risk. Usually, the other is grateful for it, but at times the scenario can unfold as you describe in your question. When that happens, it can catch the gift-giver off guard. This, then, can be another occasion for forgiving to take place. If the forgiver has good reason to fear backlash from the gift-giving, it can be given indirectly, such as donating money to charity in the other’s name without announcing it.
