Lonnie,

I would like to recommend you a chapters from Handbook of forgiveness that discuss the theoretical and empirical relationships between forgiveness and PTSD

Worthington Jr, E. L. (Ed.). (2007). Handbook of forgiveness. Routledge. (http://english.360elib.com/datu/G/EM012669.pdf#page=374)

There are also some studies on the beneficial effects of forgiveness as a psychotherapeutic intervention for PTSD:

Coyle, C. T., & Enright, R. D. (1997). Forgiveness intervention with postabortion men. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 65(6), 1042.

Freedman, S. R., & Enright, R. D. (1996). Forgiveness as an intervention goal with incest survivors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 983–992.

And many others study which show relationships between forgiveness and PTSD:

Witvliet, C. V. O., Phipps, K. A., Feldman, M. E., & Beckham, J. C. (2004). Posttraumatic mental and physical health correlates of forgiveness and religious coping in military veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 269–273

Farrow, T. F. D., Hunter, M. D., Fawbert, D., Smith, R., Mason, S., Gouneea, C., et al. (2002). Differential fMRI activations to social reasoning paradigms in patients with PTSD pre- and post-therapy. NeuroImage HBM2002 CD. 289

Karaırmak, Ö., & Güloğlu, B. (2014). Forgiveness and PTSD among veterans: The mediating role of anger and negative affect. Psychiatry Research, 219(3), 536-542.

Maguen, S., & Burkman, K. (2013). Combat-related killing: Expanding evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20(4), 476-479.

Snyder, C. R., & Heinze, L. S. (2005). Forgiveness as a mediator of the relationship between PTSD and hostility in survivors of childhood abuse. Cognition & Emotion, 19(3), 413-431.

I hope this helps,

Dariusz

Thanks Dariusz....you have been very helpful!!

I would recommend the book;Light in the Heart of Darkness: EMDR and the Treatment of War and Terrorism Survivors. Steven M Silver, Ph.D., Susan Rogers, Ph.D . WW Norton & Co. : New York, NY. 2002. Self forgiveness is more than a cognitive process as they describe. Sometimes a person will say they cannot be forgiven yet they can make amends. Some view the struggle with self forgiveness as a result of moral injury. So many times when I worked in the VA I had combat vets tell me that they know they were not guilty and were worthy of being forgiven yet still FELT this way. Survivors guilt is a form of inability to forgive and thus acceptance for being alive. As you know CPT and PE cannot effectively address moral injury as stated in the VA National Center for PTSD website. EMDR and other somatic processing therapies can. I would add that nearly every time  a soldier healed from combat related PTSD they palpably went through a grieving process. Often they had a sense that those they felt the harmed or in some way were guilty of their being killed had forgiven them. They felt this at some moment while being in their grief. 

Joseph,  Thanks....this was extremely helpful....

Rangganahdan, A.R. & Todorov, N. (2010). Personality and Self-Forgiveness: The roles of shame, guilt, empathy and conciliatory behaviour. J. of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29 (1), pp1-22.

You might also explore the literature on moral injury which a number of us are investigating.

Thanks Anne,

I will check this out...   Lonnie

To add to Anne's suggestion look at the literature  on posttraumatic growth  (PTG) by Calhoun and Tedischi.  PTG investigators are developing models of growth that include psychiatric and psychosocial factors in a new way. See; Posttraumatic Growth Among Combat Veterans; A proposed Developmental Pathway. Marotta-Walters, Sylvia; Choi, Jaehwa; Shaine, Megan Doughty. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, Vol 7(4), Jul 2015, 356-363.

 PTG can be promoted in Combat veterans. Tedeschi and McNally describe a 4 part enhancement strategy. Understanding trauma response as a precursor to Posttraumatic growth. Emotional regulation enhancement. Constructive self-disclosure. Creating a trauma narrative with posttraumatic growth domains. (Can we facilitate posttraumatic growth in combat veterans? Tedeschi, Richard G.; McNally, Richard J. American Psychologist, Vol 66(1), Jan 2011, 19-24.) I can readily see how self forgiveness often occurs in the latter two steps of growth.

This paper is well worth looking at.

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/suicide/delayed-suicides-forgotten-battalion/page/0/1?GUID=E7ED468C-BA8B-4A19-8A47-AC23F4C5219F&rememberme=1&ts=14112015

Current work on moral injury by Shay (Moral injury. (2014). Psychoanalytic Psychology, 31(2), 182-191. doi:10.1037/a0036090) is being utilized to promote self forgiveness and healing at VA centers in San Antonio. Contact LCSW Peter Bauer [email protected] for presentations he has done in this area.