Forgive and your health won't forget

The forgiveness field is part of a fundamental shift evident in some scientific disciplines from focusing research on the negative, deficit, or disease model of human nature to studying the positive and thriving aspects of human nature as a basis for healing.

In therapy, psychologists have traditionally emphasized a nonjudgmental approach to the patient, and this, some say, has allowed patients to view themselves largely as victims. Dr. Luskin, who heads the Stanford Forgiveness Project, focuses in his public classes and training of therapists on showing people that they are not victims of the past but can take control of their lives.

"Life has thrown you a curve you weren't prepared to handle; now what?" he says, indicating his direct approach in an interview. He spent years being angry with his former best friend over a grievance, he says, and recognizes three components to a long-standing hurt: the exaggerated taking of personal offense, blaming the offender for how you feel, and the creation of a grievance story.

Now he says "forgiveness is a quality inside ourselves we all can access, and we are responsible for our own emotional condition."

It is also a skill that can be taught, and he spells out the steps in "Forgive for Good: a Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness" (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), and on tapes like the one that helped Ms. O'Brien.

Both Luskin and Enright have projects working with people in Northern Ireland - Luskin with adults, and Enright with schoolchildren.

Several other researchers spoke last weekend in Boston at the latest Harvard Medical School course on "Spirituality and Healing in Medicine," which focused on forgiveness and its role in healing.

Everett Worthington, a clinical psychologist in Virginia and director of the national Campaign For Forgiveness Research, has studied issues of justice and how people close the "injustice gap" they feel when they are hurt. He found that a strong apology and/or restitution has a significant positive effect on their reactions and willingness to forgive; a weak apology can cause a negative reaction.

Michael McCullough, associate professor of psychology at the University of Miami, has looked at how people take away the motivation to be vengeful. His findings show that vengeful people get caught up in rumination, hang on to their anger, and fail to make an effort to change negative emotions for positive ones.

"A key finding is that entertaining fantasies of revenge - such as sitting in a car and thinking about getting back at someone - is accompanied by a lot of psychological strain," he says in an interview. "We still have to connect the dots on whether that has health effects."

Helping people exchange negative emotions for positive ones is now a central focus of training at Harvard's Mind/Body Medical Institute. Part of last weekend's course (the participants were largely health professionals and hospital chaplains) explored healing through contemplation and forgiveness. The institute teaches meditation, including the contemplation of positive qualities - such as appreciation, perfection, serenity, love - as a daily practice.

Health caregivers are encouraged to explore forgiveness and spiritual issues in their own lives, so they can give more compassionate help to patients.

"Sometimes problems are fixed technically, but healing doesn't occur on deeper levels," says Christine Puchalski, course director and assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University.

A panel of chaplains and practitioners from various religions - Christian, Jewish, and Muslim - shared their faith perspectives on forgiveness and healing. Honor Hill, a Christian Science practitioner from Dallas, said, "Loving your enemies is where the rubber of Christianity hits the road." She told of a young deaf woman with great bitterness toward her father who regained her hearing after finding forgiveness.

Later, when an audience member spoke of the necessity - along with the focus on individual healing - to consider the place of forgiveness on the societal level, the crowd erupted in applause.

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