The term self-deception describes the puzzling situation in which a person appears both to know and not know one and the same thing. Consider as an example a cancer patient who maintains the expectation of recovery even while surrounded by the signs of an incurable malignancy. Presumably this patient knows unconsciously that the disease is incurable, but manages to prevent that knowledge from becoming conscious. Interestingly, one uf the reasons for concluding that the patient unconsciously knows of the incurable malignancy is the very success of the defense. How could that defense be maintained so effectively without using knowledge of the unwelcome fact to anticipate the forms in which it might try to intrude into consciousness?
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