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As when you feel deep down that what you are doing or believing is wrong, but you manage to convince yourself that it is right or you continue behaving in the way you want to believe is right. How is that contradiction possible on either a mental, emotional or chemical level?

2006-10-16 08:21:19 · 13 answers · asked by communitybod 1 in Health Mental Health

13 answers

Self-deception is completely normal. It's the type and severity of that deception, when used in a self-destructive way, that is abnormal and due to either a mental problem or illness, or to a particular type of stress.

Not to go into a long discourse, but essentially the rational brain tells the emotional brain what it asks for in the way of alternative responses to solving a problem, and the emotional brain then chooses the "solution" that it most wants to hear and is less afraid to hear. In most cases the choice is one where short term results or pleasure is chosen over a long-term result that is potentially more harmful.

While it seems contradictory for the brain to lie to itself, it isn't really doing that. The rational brain is not the part that decides what the operative truth is - the emotional brain makes that decision, and not on a true-false basis, but on a probability basis, balancing consequences desires, prejudices, relative ignorance and other factors. The rational brain doesn't monitor these deliberations, and is often disturbed by the results, yet the process is repeated over and over.

Neuroses can be "explained" in this way, even if not completely understood. We can't look into the emotional brain's activities directly, but only by inference - which is why there are competing schools of thought as to therapy and to psychology in general. Nobody yet knows who or which is right as they can't fully demonstrate by direct evidence that their theories are correct. Although neuroscientists are helping a lot to show who or what is probably wrong these days.

You won't find any really good or accurate explanations of this process in the literature, but nevertheless you can study what others have written about such things as rationalization - which is essentially one form of the self-deceptive process.

2006-10-16 08:57:24 · answer #1 · answered by Grist 6 · 1 0

Strange but true. We're made so we can't tickle ourselves but we can tell ourselves all the falsehoods we want and no one can stop us from believing them if that's what we want. Most of the time it comes down to a choice and, as noted above, denial. Sure there must be some chemical or neuronal basis for such behavior and thought processes. The human brain is said to have more connections than there are stars in the galaxy. It's easy to throw the wrong switch sometimes, whether by choice or accident.

2006-10-16 08:36:47 · answer #2 · answered by Seeker 4 · 0 0

Mentally and emotionally, people can force themselves to believe what they want to believe. Sometimes when people can't process things because it will be too difficult or painful, they simply lie to themselves to avoid it. Its a coping mechanism. Some personalities are pathological, which means that the person will continue to do the same things even though they know the behavior is detrimental to their well being. And some believe that these personalities are a result of a chemical imbalance.

2006-10-16 08:41:50 · answer #3 · answered by black mamba 3 · 0 0

We all want to feel that we are not immoral in our actions or thoughts. So I think that is why we may do things and then pretend to ourselves. This justifies our actions/thoughts.
Maybe it's like when kids ask you questions like 'did you drink underage or take drugs' most of the time we would say no because we don't want our kids to think badly of us and how can we preach to them about the rights and wrongs of it
Maybe same as people who work in the Armed Forces, know what they are doing is morally wrong but they have to do it although it goes against everything they were taught about right or wrong. I suppose you convince yourself that you are doing that sort of thing for the 'good' of everyone else.
Same about what's happening with the Muslim faith at the moment in the media, you don't want to be against anyone because of their beliefs but the arguments put to you make you think and you may find yourselves believing what is being said.
You know you shouldn't but you convince yourself that you are not harming anyone with it.
It is really hard to be true to yourself and your beliefs all the time, we are brought up to question things in life.

2006-10-16 08:40:06 · answer #4 · answered by Cab Sav Girl 2 · 0 0

If you manage to convince yourself otherwise in this instance your just fooling your self (this monster lie/act will come back to haunt you in your future).

You know the difference between right and wrong deep down from your soul if your thinking with a clear head.

Follow your gut instinct.

2006-10-16 08:34:15 · answer #5 · answered by jean811823 3 · 0 0

Denial is NOT a river in Egypt.

People who can convince themselves that what they are doing at the moment is right (when it's really wrong) usually have a chemical and emotional problem. Most alcoholics and drug addicts have this issue. When they get clean and sober, that goes away---unless they are developmentally challenged.

2006-10-16 08:25:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Is like when you are unhappy... If you start faking a smile, just by doing that and continue on with it for a few minutes, all of the sudden I bet you are gonna feel happier, and not even know why. Our brain is not so smart sometimes, and it is easy to lie to him.

2006-10-16 08:26:05 · answer #7 · answered by pasajero_de_una_nuve 2 · 0 0

People who have drug or alcohol addictions are constantly contradicting themselves in this way and on all 3 levels

2006-10-16 14:21:35 · answer #8 · answered by DSkyed 1 · 0 0

The dominance of our consciousness over sub-consciousness in order to protect ourselves and continue to believe what we would like to be the case.

2006-10-16 08:57:17 · answer #9 · answered by pc5806 1 · 0 0

you can be taught how to lie to yourself in acting classes
you just make yourself believe that you're whoever you're pretendin to be an you relise after a while that it works.
i think what you're talkin bout is the same idea
xxx

2006-10-16 08:31:33 · answer #10 · answered by ciaragw 3 · 0 0

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