Can forgiveness permanently change a response?
It can change the power a remembered wound has over a present response. That does not erase the event, excuse the harm or require reconciliation. It means the past no longer has to determine the same action.
What may be happening
A wound is not only a memory of what occurred. It is also a route by which the body and mind prepare for its return. Even when the circumstances change, that preparation can remain.
Forgiveness is not a virtue displayed for someone else. In this framework it is an operation performed on the bond between the wound and the response.
Root Pass Knot
Root is the individual wound. Pass is forgiveness applied to that wound. Knot is metanoia: the point after which the change cannot simply be unknown.
Each wound remains independent. One completed pass does not resolve every other wound, but it can reduce the resistance with which forgiveness is met again.
Why this matters
The permanence lies not in forgetting, but in seeing differently. Once the structure linking wound and reaction has been recognised, the old response may still arise—but it can no longer present itself as the only possible truth.