Seeing Through the Veil of Self-Deception

We possess an uncanny ability to hold two beliefs that don’t—can’t—reside together. Not only do we house them in separate corners of our minds, but we also deliberately keep their contradiction hidden, even from ourselves. Philosophers like Sartre called this phenomenon Bad Faith, describing it as a way of denying the truths of our own existence. But even that term falls short. Self-deception isn’t merely misplaced faith; it’s a deluded faith, fragmented by contradiction and incapable of seeing the whole.