Forgiveness and psychopathology: Psychobiological and evolutionary underpinnings

We present a case of psychotherapy where a process of forgiveness occurs. Then we review the relevant cognitive-affective neuroscience and clinical implications. Resentment and forgiveness emerge within particular kinds of social interactions and can now increasingly also be conceptualized as embodied in particular neurocircuitry. There may be an association between increased psychopathology and decreased forgiveness, and the implications of this for assessment and treatment deserve further study. There may be gender differences in forgiveness; a highly speculative hypothesis suggests that these would reflect sexual divergence in the evolutionary origins of reconciliatory behavior.