The Psychology of Self-Deception 

Simple solution, make it part of your personality to never lie for any reason. Over time you will naturally stop lying to others and eventually you will discover how you lied to yourself. Education and Silence is the key.

The Buddha said the human mind has an infinite capacity to delude itself. He's not talking about lying to other people, he's talking about the lies we tell ourselves. The self deception, which I imagine most of the time we are completely unaware of

This channel is brilliant. Thank you for taking the time out to help us discontinue being self-defeating. Some of us *really* don't want to be "losers" and prefer not to settle for mediocrity. That doesn't necessarily mean we will achieve greatness, but I'd rather at least try my hardest and fail than to make no effort. I'm going down swinging.. or ascending to where I belong (once I have earned it)

Self-deception sounds very dark and bad when in reality it's just a mechanism of the brain to cope with a very complex world while having limited processing capability. We cannot live in constant doubt or state of conflict, we are just not efficient when we are in doubt, doubt is a transitional state. .Also we cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. With all this in mind you see how ignoring the part that brings the conflict is the most efficient solution and the brain knows this(quite remarkable). What Nietzsche is saying I think is that because of our inherent limitations, we will have to ignore some things over others but at least do it in a smart way by deciding yourself what to ignore, don't do it automatically.

This is easily the best channel on RU-vid

This is the first time I'm commenting on a video from AoI even though I've watched all of his videos on philosophy and have been a subscriber for months. This video shattered everything that I was, in a good way. Totally woke me up from my delusions and dropped me further into the pit of nihilism. I keep deceiving myself that I'm some genius but really I'm just smarter than average, far from a genius. Yet, it's this yearning for greatness that I strive to become and so I lie to myself hoping that one day those lies become reality. The last quote really hit home "...and so loses all respect for himself and for others."

This is why in part near death experiences are so transformative.

Love the Nietzsche quote! How seeming becomes being.

My problem is the other way round, often times ignoring the flaws of others as “not a big deal” but expecting nothing short of perfection from myself.

A video of quality, in content and graphics. "Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts." - Talleyrand

I've been going through an emotional journey as of late, and this video has really hits the nail on the head for me. I've known for a long time how deep my denial can go, and it's only until I've found this video that I can understand it more objectively. Change may be difficult, but it will come if you actively seek it. This channel has been very helpful, inspiring, and enlightening, and I'm so very glad to have been recommended it!

Such amazing choice of art work, exemplifies the philosophy behind.

Throughout my life. My possessions were of necessity. There no connection with what others may think of me. When I look back I can see that I dressed well, and had what allowed me to survive. This way was not to impress anyone. But, to see myself and be satisfied with what I see. Not what others might see. Therefore, I was always at peace with how I lived my life.

The lies i tell to myself are: Acting like i have magically transformed my character in which all forms of depression are longer existent Thinking i have overcome toxic behaviours towards women Thinking i am really attractive when in fact i have never had a girlfriend Thinking that the likely personality disorder i have can be overcome by supreme moral effort Edit: Thinking i wrote this without any deeper intention behind when in fact i just wanted to show off how honest i am with myself which also applies to this edit

Academy of Ideas pieces always hit home! They are top notch productions for sure. We ourselves are the favorite target of our deceptions and we are rarely aware of it. Mindfulness matters.

Continuing in my addiction to your fantastic videos, this one I can relate to 100% ! At the age of 68 and in remission for throat cancer, there is so much to look back on and keep the mirror of my appearance to others clean as well as to myself, so that I can be as honest and forthcoming as possible with tactfulness to avoid being judge mental towards others while in violation of that very thing myself. That being said however, total honesty can be very dangerous in the day by day interactions with others. Case in point.....your wife asks, honey does this dress make me look fat ? Hahaha......this has been the age old trap many of us men fall into and to hold onto our relationship we have the choice to lie to our partner and too ourselves or face the dreaded couch for many a night ! As with my first wife in telling the truth to her on several occasions I found myself in divorce court by her hand. The truth is... No the dress doesn't make you look fat, because you are fat and you picked the wrong size for your abundant flesh ! Hahahaha......in my second marriage I had to assume to be a different person and lie to myself to maintain my sex life and avoid the couch. However that became tiresome and frustrating to my wanting to be an honest man, and later in the relationship my honesty came out and low and behold, another notch in the handle of my gun of truthful answers, left me once again in divorce court. Since then I have acquired the skills of self defense in that area and will not go for strike three !. I find it a very lonely existence to be honest with everyone, but more important to be honest with myself that I cling to the saying.... What you see, is what you get !. For what ever time I have left, this is my way of life and have abandoned worrying whether or not I please anyone, for it is their choice not mine to except the truth I might give,or reject it and me as well. In the 1960's I was a proffesional drummer and on stage had to be who I wasn't for the crowds, but in doing so lost my own identity as to who I was because of living the lie. I find now that that the best filter to lasting relationships with the right people is the truth. I won't waste anymore time living a lie to please others, and thus being true to myself.

I admire all the videos. The quotations are the product of devotion, concentration and thorough research and deeper understanding of the topic.

To summarize one should get real with themselves then fake it till they make it

Watching educational videos makes me feel calm and blissful. A good escape from everyday worldliness.

Every living narcissist human should watch this video. One of the best channels of RU-vid, EVER.

For the people who work to make these videos possible, you sure are great. I go to these videos and seek philosophical enlightenment or at least, just be aware of certain philosophies. Watching your videos give me intense satisfaction as well as determination to fully open my eyes and free myself from the chains of social conditioning. Thanks again for posting videos. I am one of the many who appreciates it.

I wish James Lyndsay would emulate your format. Brilliant work. I have based more of my follow up research on your presentations than I can say. You never lie.

Outstanding lectures informative, interesting and well researched.

“Don't ever, for any reason, do anything for anyone, for any reason, ever, no matter what. No matter where. Or who, or who you are with, or where you are going or... or where you've been... ever. For any reason, whatsoever.”

Dude! You are taking several thousand words to put forth a very simple concept. When I was very young my Mom told me to never lied to myself because we tend to believe it when we do. But, if a stranger lies to us we'll likely question it. She also stressed that lying to oneself is a forecast for disaster. The result is I've always been a realist and being a retired pilot it was good that I constantly faced reality. You know, not pretending "flame-out" was ten minutes later than it was.

You are so extreme pure on point, many respect! -peace

My biggest self-deception was believing that there was an inherently-real self being deceived

Tnx ... definitely a life changing message ... plus good job on the audible and visual presentation. this channel is worth a monetary support.

When i took acid, i had a complete realization of all the things i wAs lying to myself about and not fixing. Then i got depressed asf for a while

This channel saved me . I have joined a new job . 1st time happy in 3 years not just because of job but mindset.

Martial arts. Military training. Mathematics. Suffer for your art whatever it may be.

The art work alone is amazing.

I captured myself in denial once upon a time, then I analyzed myself for like a year. Now I don’t deceive myself

bottle of tough to swallow pills just laying around on youtube.

BE YOURSELF !! U avoid deceiving people!!

I think he nailed it in the first minute. The question is why do we have a need to feel good about ourselves. The answer could be more intriguing than we think.

I know for a FACT, I Don't Need someone else's words to SAVE Myself! Many do Not have books! Yet they can still save themselves!

this is the best channel on youtube, keep up the good work

One of my favorite channels. Great images, great writing

this channel is very informative and thought-provoking

Perfection is perfectly impossible

Your videos are getting better and better! Love this channel!

Lovely video you made. Absolutely transformative. Thank you!

Self-deception and self-sabotage, these are our defense mechanisms to the *Chasm of Life!* _"You can ignore reality, but not the consequences of its avoidance."_ -Ayn Rand(?)

You are too good. Thanks for putting this series up. Otherwise it’s very hard to pursue this knowledge with my profession.

I'm liking the videos before watching them everytime from now on. Simply exquisite as every other video.

I've said for a very long time that pettiness, greed and self deception are the three primary human characteristics. I've pretty much got the pettiness and greed parts licked, all I need to do now is a bit of work on the self deception!!

Where you believe or not, you are truly doing God's work brother.

Sometimes the trauma is so devastating that we are not stronger in the broken places or wise enough to untangle the knots.

Amazing job as usual. Great choice of quotes and art to complement. Gave me a lot to think about!

I can only express : “ wow , this contribution of truth “ a big slap to awakening .... , so cool 🤲👍🙏

Deadass underated channel man, ur videos are soooooo goood omg, i would love if u did a video on resurection from complete despair . Keep it up!

Info like this makes me appreciate life even more.

In the paragraph around 9:00, is written:" ....without which the expression of friendliness cannot be effected." It should be affected. The narrator said affected.

Thank you for this beautiful video. I am in the process of reviewing myself and the ideas put together help.

"The heart is DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, and DESPERATELY WICKED." ...Jeremiah 19:9 If we can realize this, even to just a degree of cognizance, we are on a sound course to change, by the power of God...without whom we are powerless to see straight, never mind walk straight. But its a real hurdle to admit to our self deception, or to take that first really hard look in the mirror of truth!

ah I almost removed my like trying to like a second time

Nice work. I feel we all have a element of self deception. It also could be self wilful ignorance and inconvenient truths.

Hello, I recently started creating in an attempt to shed light on certain topics. However, i am only posting comments like this on intellectual channels in the hopes like minded people will be able to find something of value. Thank you

This channel is truly incredible.

These videos are so true yet make me even more depressed and void of vigor.

am i the only one who calls this channel jordan petersons study guide?

I love how your videos are on a well chosen intersection of philosophy and psychology, just out of curiosity: is this your full-time job or do you study/work?

Notification squaaa first

Thank you. This video contains SO MANY ANSWERS to questions I have had all my life.

*dab*

Fantastic video. So much better than your School of Life criticism episode. Although I would say you should listen to how Anna Karennina and Dostoyevsky's names are actually pronounced on Wikipedia. It was a bit funny though.

Maria Antonelle rightly said “ it is in the ability to deceive ourselves that our best talents are shown”

Absolutely phenomenal. Thank you for your content.

Of 100 lies we tell, 10 we tell outside , and 90 we tell to our selves.

Fulfilment, this is the reason I was never pulled into the words, the attention I received for my work.

So much amazing art!

Your videos come up on my feed a lot, I guess because of related videos I've watched. This last winter, I had a very, very difficult experience on LSD, and over the next six or seven months had constant epiphanies about what it all meant. Okay I just began to explain it all in detail, and realized that too is boring, personal, and over-sharing, so I removed it. But this video has clarified so much for me. The LSD experience, for me, is a confrontation with absolute chaos. And I've been stuck there for a long time, in life, and my one hang up has always been that anything I do seems to be a fraudulent act of despair. And I guess all I really want to say is I feel a little better hearing such geniuses as Nietzche saying that this *faking it until you make it* is an essential first step. That really helps. Thanks. Your videos are so good. You're doing...uhhh...God's work?

How can you blame me... When the alternative is to feel shitty about myself and plunge into despair? I can't imagine myself being able to sort myself out. Not even with all the knowledge in the world, I won't.

It's a great pleasure to watch your videos. Thank you so much!

In most aspects of My personaLity... I conceived that it is more adaptabLe in the WorLd of Lies to be a Fake Somebody than to be a reaL nobody

Luke 6:41 .Brothers eye ,not neighbours eye. Any ways ,I do like this channel and I am getting a course in philosophy. HALLELUYAH!

2:30 the scene in shrek where they cross the rickety bridge makes so much more sense now.

My biggest flaw *I'm to perfect... literally NOTHING to work on... you could say I'm a sort of Idol to worship.*

This is amazingly frightening and very insightful

This........is truly the biggest challenge of life for me.

人の七難より我が十難 Hito no shichi nan yori waga juunan Just wanted to say that this was the Japanese proverb in the video (and that it does exist) I wanted to find out why exactly 7 and 10 are used, though I couldn't find a reason.

Love the Nietzsche quote.

2:80 "flaunting of reality" should be flouting of reality

Self-deception can be completely positive in certain circumstances

this was mainly to do with the enlightenment era! The Germans had some interesting philosophers during this era, composers too! and you had the wave of psychoanalysis stemming from Austria a bit later. This is why method acting is so fascinating..they utterly immerse themselves in deception!

just a thought, when someone comes to term with their own faults, sometimes, they will try to find a reason for why those faults are there in the first place. This restricts the ability to take responsibility for our faults and the whole exercise remains futile.....

This is very true indeed

This pretty much sums it all up...

if you twist your words to deceive me , showing what kind of fool i am , than you saw something about me that you won’t ever admit , except through your actions , like sitting down and letting that of me go down deep into you , trying harder and harder until coming up with a child , your baby response , your ace , that tells me how worthless i am in a very very sophisticated work of yours , you just admitted my greatness, bringing forth the very best of you , your mind and soul through your body , your everything , you even dressed up nicely (twist) , to meet the indisputable , that has to look for you like looking for an insect , to even see you (twist hides from the objective) , and of course he MIGHT accidentally step on you , not even noticing, little one (gamora)

Thanks for sharing 🙏

Thank you, note to self, working on.......

Thank you for this Video

Great video thanks

A great big honest "thank you".

Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise !

“To thy own self be true. “ and “Fake it ‘til you make it “.Basically.

Very insightful passage of Tolstoy...

I have a better quote for 9:20 "It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting" dont know who if it from but it stuck with me for a couple of years.

Thank you!