Self-Deception

Definition

Self-deception is the act of lying to yourself. You have likely noticed this puzzling behavior in others, that is, cases in which people apparently believe something that they must know is false. This behavior does not include exaggeration, faking, or simple lying—those are cases in which the individual is well aware of uttering a falsehood. Instead, self-deception is something deeper and more complicated, even paradoxical.

Consider some typical examples. An otherwise pleasant young man drinks too much alcohol but gets angry if anyone suggests he has a drinking problem. He refuses to believe he is an alcoholic even though the evidence is obvious: Empty bottles are hidden throughout his apartment, and his boss has often sent him home for drinking on the job. Again, it does not count as self-deception if he knows he is an alcoholic but is simply lying about it.

Consider another case in which a young woman has a deep-seated hatred of her mother but cannot admit it to herself. The signs of this hatred are abundant; she angers quickly at any mention of her mother and makes a face when mentioning her. But the young woman cannot admit it because much guilt and shame would ensue.

The mother of a criminal cannot believe the things the police say about him. Her reason for living, her pride and joy, would be destroyed, so she won't let herself believe it. Still she startles at every ring of the phone, fearing that it is the police calling about her son again.

The more one analyzes such cases, the more complex the notion of self-deception appears. Explaining them requires an acknowledgment of the unconscious part of the mind. Only in the unconscious can an emotional conflict actually influence an individual's behavior and yet be inaccessible. At a conscious level, the truth about an individual's particular problem area is unavailable or, at least, obscure. The unconscious, however, knows the truth.

Therefore, self-deception is not simply being mistaken about oneself. You may well be in error about many aspects of your life. But most of them are not the result of any self-deceptive process. For example, you may not have been told that you are adopted: In that case, others may have purposely deceived you. Or you may believe that you have a genius-level IQ because you accidentally mis-scored a take-home IQ test. Your recall of the fact that you hated your parents at age 10 may have faded along with other memories. None of these cases qualifies as self-deception.

History and Background

Because the unconscious appears to be involved, selfdeception is often discussed in the context of Sigmund Freud's famous psychoanalytic theory. Rather than being one of the traditional defense mechanisms, selfdeception is thought to be a necessary component of all defense mechanisms. Each one has the paradoxical element noted earlier: There must be at least one moment of self-deception for a defense mechanism to work. Those readers familiar with such defenses as projection, intellectualization, and repression will understand that, in each case, a person has to be both unaware and hyperaware of the disturbing information.

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