Cognitive Dissonance: What Happened To The Fox's Initial Desire For Grapes?

Question

In Aesop's Fables the 'Fox And The Grapes'...
The Fox convinces himself that the grapes look sour after he fails to obtain them from high up in the tree.

While cognitive dissonance does soften the blows of reality...
I wonder what long term affects this has on the Self.

What happens to the true disappointment when one easily says:

"The wo/man of my dreams married someone else...well...it never would have worked out with us anyway."

Answer 1

It was probably replaced by the understanding that foxes can't climb trees.

Not all appetites get filled.

The rationalization that the grapes are probably sour is not surprising giving the alternative is to say that I am a fox and therefore unable to have these grapes I want. Both may be true but which is the harder truth to swallow?

As for "the love of my dreams getting married to someone else". That would hurt quite a bit. But unlike the case of the grapes it is better to think it was your own fault that it would not have worked out than to think s/he just rejected you and moved on.

I consider this a form of pain management, harmless in its individual case by case basis but if systematic it can become delusional.

Pretty soon everything becomes acceptable because there is an excuse for everything.

The question is "At what point does the fox figure out that the grapes were not sour but that he can not have them?" Is it before he makes up a story about the grapes being sour or after?

This tells me if he is lying to himself or merely to others.

Perhaps he just forgot what the truth was.

I would have to talk to that fox further to find out what the truth is for him/her.

But the short answer is he disguised it as something else.

Answer 2

It gets buffered, by manufacturing a justification...

Ultimately this emotional disappointment gets stored in the sub-sonscious mind...

Answer 3

We can also define foxes as having feelings
like us humans.
Mohamed