> What is self-DDD?
> When we deceive, delude or deny to our self, we mislead our self, we
> misrepresent or disown what we know to be true, we lie to our self, we
> refuse to acknowledge that which we know. In Vital Lies, Simple Truths,
> Daniel Goleman notes that we do not see what it is that we do not see,
> because:
>
> The mind can protect itself against anxiety by diminishing awareness. This
> mechanism produces a blind spot: a zone of blocked attention and
> self-deception. Such blind spots occur at each major level of behaviour from
> the psychological to the social. (p. 22)
>
> Psychological blind spots create a not-knowing about something. However, in
> order for a system to recognise what to avoid, deny or mislead, it has to
> maintain knowledge of what it knows to be true. In other words, deceiving
> our self requires that we both know and not-know something. This apparent
> paradox is one of the keys to understanding how self-DDD operates.
>
> The delightfully ambiguous title of Stanley Cohen's book highlights that
> States of Denial are equally as evident with nations as with individuals:
>
> People, organizations, governments or whole societies are presented with
> information that is too disturbing, threatening or anomalous to be fully
> absorbed or openly acknowledged. The information is therefore somehow
> repressed, disavowed, pushed aside or reinterpreted. Or else the information
> 'registers' well enough, but its implications -- cognitive, emotional or
> moral -- are evaded, neutralized or rationalized away. (p. 1)
>
> Cohen goes on to explain how the ability to repress, disavow, push aside or
> reinterpret is often helpful, even necessary, in the development of our
> species and of civilisation. For example:
>
> The inhabitants of Beirut, Bogota or Belfast cannot live in a permanent
> state of heightened awareness that a car bomb may go off at any minute. Some
> switching off is necessary to get through the round of everyday life. (p.
> 15)
>
> Some people develop the capacity to switch off, turn a blind eye or fool
> themselves to such an extent that it limits their well-being and further
> growth. Like any natural pattern, self-DDD operates within the dynamic
> balance of a larger whole. Gregory Bateson was fond of saying, "There is
> always an optimal value beyond which anything is toxic." (Goleman, p. 245).
> This is why an overdeveloped ability to self-DDD is a feature of many
> conditions such as anorexia, body dysmorphia, Munchhausen's disease,
> physically abusive relationships, compulsions, self-harm and addiction.
>
> In less dramatic ways self-DDD features in everyones' life. Being able to
> deceive and delude ourselves is both natural and something that to some
> extent we all engage in. The following is a small sample of hundreds of
> commonly used metaphors and expressions that point to an apparently
> universal pattern of human behaviour:
>
> I don't want to know.
> I couldn't take in the news.
> It's got nothing to do with me.
> Don't make waves.
> I looked the other way.
> There's nothing I can do about it.
> I can't believe this is happening to me.
> Ignorance is bliss.
> Let sleeping dogs lie.
> Brush it under the carpet.
> I'm just hoping it isn't going to happen.
> Why didn't I listen to my intuition again?
> I'll just pop in for a quick pint.
>
> With a typical conflict or dilemma, we acknowledge both sides and that we
> don't know how to resolve it -- we do not deny there is a conflict.
>
> The good news is, the paradoxical and contradictory nature of self-DDD
> patterns can be a doorway to the next level of personal development.
>
> --
> "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." RFK 1968