In most cases, they have confessed their sins and asked for public absolution.

In his agony he turned to the local vicar, asking for public absolution for his sins.

Goody's salvation was a public relations offensive centred on India, and a third Big Brother stint on the Indian version of the show, as her very public absolution continued.

Armstrong's goal, of course, is forgiveness, a public absolution that will allow him to resume his career as a competitive athlete - this time in triathlons - and regain some tarnished measure of his lost good will.

Equally important is the so-called recovery movement, which, as Wendy Kaminer points out in her wittily acute book, "I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional," has perpetuated the notion that people can make the requisite journey from trauma to transcendence by confronting their inner demons through confession and public absolution.