Forgiveness and the Brain

The decade of the brain in the United States, 1990–2000, unleashed remarkable work on the dynamic of brain activity. It has remained for those in England to focus on the implications of brain studies for the dynamic of forgiveness. A major center for this work is the Sheffield Medical Center in Sheffield, England. Key names in this work are those of Thomas Farrow, Ph.D., and Peter Woodruff, Ph.D.

The development of brain studies moves at a pace that one can hardly keep up with it. Although one could reference books, the Internet appears to be the best resource for keeping in touch with the discussion.

Common to all these studies is first the discovery that the act of forgiving involves certain areas of the cerebral cortex – mostly in the left side of the brain. In what might be called the “executive” section of the brain, there is action that deals with feelings and dynamic activity in all of the brain – including healthy brains or brains afflicted with problems such as schizophrenia....