ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potentially destructive tendencies of resentment and the role that reasonableness play in countering them. It also focuses the on the potentially destructive tendencies of resentment and the role that reasonableness might play in countering them. Resentment presents a barrier to forgiveness in at least two ways. First, resentment at what we take to be wrongs against ourselves or those we care about tends to exaggerate claims of wrongdoing. Second, resentment can breed more of the same. Our first response to being on the receiving end of someone's resentment might well be anger at such seemingly unfair and ill-grounded charges. Resentment has the capacity to serve both as a defense mechanism and as a springboard for counterattack. The dark side of resentment as a defense mechanism leads many to become "injustice collectors" who refuse to let any alleged injustice fade into obscurity.
