Forgiving the Unforgivable / :

We know a great deal about what factors people believe foster or impede forgiveness, many of which are related to the act itself or the transgressors actions following commission of the act. However, we do not yet know how forgiveness is possible in cases in which all indicators point toward unforgiveness. For example, how can one come to release their intense, negative, other-directed emotion following a trauma that was severe, intentional, and perpetrated by an individual who lacks remorse, fails to accept responsibility, and continues to reoffend? The current work investigates this line of inquiry by comparing individuals feeling rules surrounding forgiveness with their lived experiences of forgiveness or unforgiveness after extreme harm. It shows that forgiveness of the unforgivable does not arise from a divergence from, or rejection of, ones established feeling rules surrounding forgiveness. Instead, such forgiveness becomes possible through a process of redefinition of the situation.