Lying to oneself. How does that work exactly?

It's called denial... and it's surprisingly insidious

You’re taking it more literally than a Down Syndrome kid chasing chromosomes.

At a superficial level we can't lie to ourselves - we can tell another that we have £100 in our pocket. We can convince them, yet we know we hav'nt. But at other levels yes, but this is more normally called "repression", the building of a false persona that we present to the world.

The guy who faces facts. The hard guy who doesn't allow emotions to get in the way. Often, all to do with our "shadow self", with repression, unresolved issues in childhood or adolescence. The "lies" become solidified as final fact. A total denial of a genuine personal self-hood, one that can genuinely interact with others, bringing forth the beauty of reconciliation and restoration of what could be called the "divine image".

There are things that we can will, and things that we can't. We can will knowledge, but not wisdom. As I see it, lying to oneself is simply to not understand such limitations of the will. Something else is required - maybe Grace, in all its infinite forms.

Tell this to someone who lives with a mental illness. Our brains literally operate as two separate entities and battle each other in lies and truth.

oh gosh no. self delusion is common, possibly even necessary for many, if not all people.

People convince themselves of things. I mean yeah we all know what is technically true so we cannot completely lie to ourselves.

But you know, when a truth is too hard to face, we try to convince ourselves otherwise, for a while anyways. Eventually we have to admit that a situation sucks.

beats me 🤷🏻 I'm not a democrat...

Some deny the reality and live in their one version of reality. In a way we all do, but some people take it to the next level like Don Quixote.

im easily fooled 🤓