Self-Deception Part 1: Denial
Unveiling the intricate layers of self-deception, we delve into the realm of denial. A psychological defense mechanism often overlooked, denial serves as the first step in understanding the complex labyrinth of self-deception. Let's embark on this enlightening journey together.
Denial
The simple refusal to admit to certain unacceptable or unmanageable aspects of reality, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary
- An example of denial is a middle-aged physician who ignores the classic signs and symptoms of a heart attack-crushing central chest pain radiating into the left arm, associated with sweating, shortness of breath, and nausea-and casually carries on with his game of golf.
Related to denial is negative hallucination
The unconscious failure to perceive uncomfortable sensory stimuli
- Thus, a common experience in conversation or in a social setting is for a person to ‘edit out’ a challenging or contradictory remark. The person momentarily goes blank, and then carries on as though nothing significant had been said.
The Five Stages of Grief
In her 1969 book On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced a model of bereavement that is commonly referred to as the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, grieving, and acceptance.
- The model has been criticized on a number of grounds, including the fact that not all five stages need occur, or occur in the given order.
The concept of denial
Freud thought of it as an immature ego defense
- It is often difficult to verify the existence of an ego defense, but a person’s denial in the face of hard evidence to the contrary can easily be spotted by almost anyone else.
- Problems arise in the absence of evidence
- Denial can be imagined or invented by others
- The charge of denial can be levied at anything and everything that a person can say or do that runs contrary to some pet theory