The Deceptive Disguise Of Self

Self-deception is the act of downplaying the importance, relevance, or significance of contrary facts and logical reasoning. It is when one willfully refuses to accept evidence of facts and reality. Evidently, this phenomenon is exceedingly prevalent to the point of normalcy. Just go through your social media pages and take note of the supposedly “happy” and “successful” individuals. It’s all a facade!

You see, the mind is an extraordinary apparatus. It believes anything it is taught, even when we are the perpetrators. When you start believing your own lies, it becomes easier to get others to believe them, too. Nowadays, self-distortions are motivated by the need for individuals to keep or develop a false narrative to sustain connections or attachments. Carefully crafting a misleading story has practically become a million-dollar industry. Some influencers, for example, create a nonexistent world (an illusion), and society feeds off this superficiality like an addictive drug.

Who, then, deceives us the most? Naturally, individuals closest to us are more inclined to deceive us. Self-deception, on the other hand, is by far the most prevalent type of deceit. We delude ourselves and end up on a road of erroneous beliefs. What distinguishes self-deception from delusion, then?

The primary distinction is that delusion is a mental illness, while self-deception isn’t, albeit it can lead to mental illness. If a person is unable to confront reality, they may begin to experience delusions and hallucinations. That being the case, self-deception helps individuals avoid confronting painful life realities. It is a coping mechanism because it helps people distort and manipulate the truth to be more consistent with what they can psychologically handle.

So, does that mean we have become a generation that can’t handle the truth? 
Better yet, the generation that rejects truth!