Robert Enright – How Injustices Can Fracture the Personhood of the Victim and How Forgiving Restores That Personhood

March 22, 2023

Talk Description
Robert Enright will address how serious injustices against people can damage their: a) ability to trust and therefore their ability to enter into healthy relationships; b) willingness and ability to love; c) ability to practice the Cardinal Virtues; d) sense of their own dignity; and e) emotional well-being, including increased anger, anxiety, and depression and reduced hope for the future. A major antidote for restoring the person in each of these dimensions, following the serious injustice, is learning to forgive accurately and deeply. What forgiveness is, how people go about it, and how it accomplishes the restoration of personhood in the victim will be discussed.

Biography

Dr. Robert Enright holds the Aristotelian Professorship in Forgiveness Science within the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a licensed psychologist, and founder of the International Forgiveness Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating knowledge about forgiveness and community renewal through forgiveness. He is the first to publish a scientific study on the topic of person-to-person forgiveness, in 1989. He has been called “the forgiveness trailblazer” by Time magazine and is often introduced as “the father of forgiveness research” because of his 37-year commitment to researching and implementing forgiveness programs. Dr. Enright is the author or editor of seven books and over 150 publications centered on social development and the psychology of forgiveness. He is the first to publish research on forgiveness therapy, in 1993, as he developed the 20-step “Process Model of Forgiving.” His latest endeavors include forgiveness education for students in various world communities (for example, Israel, Monrovia, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, and Taiwan) and forgiveness therapy with those in correctional institutions. For his innovative research on forgiveness, he recently won what the American Psychological Association calls “psychology’s highest awards,” the APF Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.

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