March 4, 2011. Dr.
Robert Enright, licensed psychologist and professor of Educational
Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, said in a recent
conference on neuroscience that practicing forgiveness is a
fast-track to good mental health.
Professor
Robert Enright
University of Wisconsin“As
a person forgives and they bare the pain of what happened to them,
they realize that they are stronger than they ever knew, and they are
able to stand up and mercifully face what has happened with
compassion and that tends to make people stronger.”
Dr.
Enright is a champion of a new therapeutic method called ACT, or
Acceptance Commitment Therapy. According to Enright, ACT is an
effective therapeutic method for accepting circumstances and
practicing forgiveness.
Professor
Robert Enright
University of Wisconsin“If we are truly motivated to reduce resentment we will get rid of
some of that anger, and our psychological science shows that even if
some of the resentment is reduced, people then can benefit greatly in
terms of their emotional health.”
Father
Robert Gahl, another lecturer at the conference, argued that new
findings in neuroscience confirm ancient and medieval ideas about
forgiveness.
Reverend
Robert Gahl
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross“Aristotle,
along with Thomas Aquinas, actually offers a philosophical grounding
for a better understanding of this new kind of psychotherapy called
ACT, which is a kind of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT.”
Father Gahl also
emphasized that, because forgiveness is ultimately an act of love, it
shouldn't be a single act, but a virtue which we should always strive
to cultivate within ourselves. A challenge for all of us!
RD
FF
JM
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