The forgiver sees that no matter what another does, he or she is still of worth, worthy of respect because of personhood. In the context of forgiveness, generosity has a sense of mercy to it because of the offender's injustice. Therapists will find that significant amounts of anger need to be resolved in therapy before the client experiences benevolence, compassion, and moral love. Therapists should not convey the expectation that clients should experience compassion or love early in forgiveness therapy. The movement toward such benevolence requires difficult and often lengthy work in therapy.
Confusions can easily develop despite a client's good intentions to forgive.
We present 14 ideas below, all from a psychological perspective, that qualify or deepen the definition. Each time a person forgives, a certain amount of anger may be removed from a hurt. If we were to give 100 people a forgiveness test with a range of scores, then people will vary along a bell-shaped curve from high to low. Another interpretation is that if we were to give, for example, Jill the same forgiveness test over a 1-year span, she may show a trend toward improvement in the scores if forgiveness therapy is successful. A forgiver is not necessarily aware of the moral principle that is being expressed.