ABSTRACT
This chapter integrates a diverse and scattered literature to describe the psychodynamic underpinnings of granting and seeking forgiveness. The evolutionary foundations and the developmental substrate of these capacities are elucidated. An individual who fails to make certain intrapsychic achievements might be vulnerable to psychopathological development, as is evident in those who cannot forgive, or forgive too readily, constantly or never seek others' forgiveness, cannot accept forgiveness, or show an imbalance between their capacities to forgive themselves and to forgive others. Psychoanalysis has had little to say about forgiveness. Like revenge, the fantasy of forgiveness often becomes a cruel torture, because it remains outside of reach of most ordinary human beings. Acknowledgement by the perpetrator that he or she has indeed harmed the victim is important for the latter's recovery from trauma. Like forgiving, seeking forgiveness is not easy and requires much intrapsychic work.
