ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the logical problem of forgiveness as a psychological phenomenon. The very notion of forgiveness is characterized by a yawning chasm between two selves, the victim and the offender, I and Thou. Forgiveness's inherent stipulation of an offending other exposes it as a feature of modernity, an indicator that "the logic of otherness rules". Modern consciousness, having "been born out of" or emerged from a relatively blissful and innocent sense of embeddeness in and containment by the anima mundi in former times, now experiences itself as alienated from the natural world. The consciousness of the soul-making subject is capable of "hosting" or presencing the soul, so to speak. Psychologically speaking, the "ego" arises as a one-sided or undialectical form of consciousness, wherein one or more aspects become concretized or substantiated. The conscious practice of forgiveness is problematic because it tends to ignore what Giegerich defines as the "psychological difference", or "the difference between soul and human being".
