Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health considers the role of forgiveness in mental life, about both forgiving and being forgiven. Each chapter addresses concepts including superego, repetition compulsion, enactment and notions such as sacrifice, penance, justification, absolution, and contrition.

Ronald Britton is a training and supervising analyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society. He first trained as a doctor, and as a child psychiatrist; he was chair of the Department of Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic, where he was involved in treatment of deprived children and their parents. This experience was influential to his psychoanalytic thinking where he maintains the importance of 'childhood' as a formative experience.

Aleksandra Novakovic is a training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytic Association and a group analyst. She was consultant clinical psychologist, joint head of the Inpatient & Community Psychology Service, and she worked with patients with severe mental health problems and facilitated staff groups for mental health teams. She worked at Tavistock Relationships and supervised on the Reflective Practice Course at IGA.

Acknowledgements

About the Editors and Contributors

Introduction

Chapter 1: The lost good object regained: Coexisting pars of self and the generosity of forgiveness, Aleksandra Novakovic

Chapter 2: Forgiving as malice relented: the depressive position in action, Chris Mawson

Chapter 3: The developmental importance of forgiveness and compassion: In psychoanalysis and Buddhism, Hiroshi Amino

Chapter 4: Revenge or Forgiveness: the Oresteia, Ronald Britton

Chapter 5: Cry Havoc and Reconciliation, David Millar

Chapter 6: Revenge And Resentment In The 'Oedipus Situation', John Steiner

Chapter 7: She waited, Kate Croy... Forgiveness in Henry James' "The Wings of the Dove": the Villain's Tragedy, Ignês Sodré

Chapter 8: Contessa perdono! Mozartian sexual betrayal and forgiveness, Francis Grier

Chapter 9: Forgiveness Work in Society, Institutions and Large Groups, Gerhard Wilke

Chapter 10: Forgiveness in the Recognition of Actuality, Karl Figlio

Chapter 11: In the grip of un-forgiveness : Some notes on forgiveness and orientation from a German background, Claudia Frank

Chapter 12: The Unforgiving Self, Ronald Britton