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Revision as of 20:00, 13 January 2020 by Beland (talk | contribs) (split off Denial (Freud))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For other uses, see Denial (disambiguation).Denial, in ordinary English usage, is asserting that a statement or allegation is not true.
An individual that engages in denialism is described as a denialist or true believer.
The concept of denial is particularly important to the study of addiction.
In psychoanalysis
In psychoanalytic theory, denial is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.
Other uses
The concept of denial is important in twelve-step programs, where the abandonment or reversal of denial forms the basis of the first, fourth, fifth, eighth and tenth steps. The ability to deny or minimize is an essential part of what enables an addict to continue his or her behavior despite evidence that—to an outsider—appears overwhelming. This is cited as one of the reasons that compulsion is seldom effective in treating addiction—the habit of denial remains.
Understanding and avoiding denial is also important in the treatment of various diseases. The American Heart Association cites denial as a principal reason that treatment of a heart attack is delayed. Because the symptoms are so varied, and often have other potential explanations, the opportunity exists for the patient to deny the emergency, often with fatal consequences. It is common for patients to delay mammograms or other tests because of a fear of cancer, even though this is clearly maladaptive. It is the responsibility of the care team, and of the nursing staff in particular, to train at-risk patients to avoid this behavior.
Types
Denial of fact
In this form of denial, someone avoids a fact by utilizing deception. This lying can take the form of an outright falsehood (commission), leaving out certain details to tailor a story (omission), or by falsely agreeing to something (assent). Someone who is in denial of fact is typically using lies to avoid facts they think may be painful to themselves or others.
Denial of responsibility
This form of denial involves avoiding personal responsibility by:
- blaming: a direct statement shifting culpability and may overlap with denial of fact
- minimizing: an attempt to make the effects or results of an action appear to be less harmful than they may actually be
- justifying: when someone takes a choice and attempts to make that choice appear acceptable due to their perception of what is right in a situation
- regression: when someone acts in a way unbecoming of their age
Someone using denial of responsibility is usually attempting to avoid potential harm or pain by shifting attention away from themselves.
Denial of impact
Denial of impact involves a person's avoiding thinking about or understanding the harms of his or her behavior has caused to self or others, i.e. denial of consequences. Doing this enables that person to avoid feeling a sense of guilt and it can prevent him or her from developing remorse or empathy for others. Denial of impact reduces or eliminates a sense of pain or harm from poor decisions.
Denial of cycle
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Many who use this type of denial will say things such as, "it just happened". Denial of cycle is where a person avoids looking at their decisions leading up to an event or does not consider their pattern of decision making and how harmful behavior is repeated. The pain and harm being avoided by this type of denial is more of the effort needed to change the focus from a singular event to looking at preceding events. It can also serve as a way to blame or justify behavior (see above).
Denial of awareness
This form of denial attempts to divert pain by claiming that the level of awareness was inhibited by some mitigating variable. This is most typically seen in addiction situations where drug or alcohol abuse is a factor, though it also occasionally manifests itself in relation to mental health issues or the pharmaceutical substances used to treat mental health issues. This form of denial may also overlap with denial of responsibility.
Denial of denial
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This can be a difficult concept for many people to identify with in themselves, but is a major barrier to changing hurtful behaviors. Denial of denial involves thoughts, actions and behaviors which bolster confidence that nothing needs to be changed in one's personal behavior. This form of denial typically overlaps with all of the other forms of denial, but involves more self-delusion. Denial at this level can have significant consequences both personally and at a societal level.
DARVO
Harassment covers a wide range of offensive behaviour. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset. In the legal sense, it is behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing.
DARVO is an acronym used to describe a common strategy of abusers. The abuser will: Deny the abuse ever took place, then Attack the victim for attempting to hold the abuser accountable; then they will lie and claim that they, the abuser, are the real victim in the situation, thus Reversing the Victim and Offender. This usually involves gaslighting and victim blaming. Some therapists see DARVO as a specific form of gaslighting.
Psychologist Jennifer Freyd writes:
...I have observed that actual abusers threaten, bully and make a nightmare for anyone who holds them accountable or asks them to change their abusive behavior. This attack, intended to chill and terrify, typically includes threats of law suits, overt and covert attacks on the whistle-blower's credibility, and so on. The attack will often take the form of focusing on ridiculing the person who attempts to hold the offender accountable. he offender rapidly creates the impression that the abuser is the wronged one, while the victim or concerned observer is the offender. Figure and ground are completely reversed. The offender is on the offense and the person attempting to hold the offender accountable is put on the defense.
Alleged examples of DARVO in public events include:
- The behavior of R. Kelly during an interview related to criminal proceedings against him for sexual abuse of minors
- The behavior of President Donald Trump in defending himself against sexual harassment allegations
DARVO has also been featured in popular entertainment. For example, the season finale of South Park depicts a phone call between Donald Trump and "Randy," in which DARVO is discussed as a strategy for Randy to defend himself.
See also
- Climate change denial
- Closed circle
- Closeted
- Cognitive dissonance
- Confirmation bias
- Cover-up
- Deniable encryption
- Denialism
- Foreclosure
- Flat earth society
- HIV/AIDS denialism
- Holocaust denial
- Lie
- Moral blindness
- Narcissistic defence sequences
- Non-apology apology
- Non-denial denial
- Plausible deniability
- Polite fiction
- Psychological manipulation
- Scotomization
- Screen memory
- Self-deception
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- Skepticism
- The Politics of Denial
- Willful blindness
Notes
- "denial". Oxford English Dictionary (Online, U.S. English ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2014-05-24 – via oxforddictionaries.com.
- 2005, The Cape Times 2005-03-11
- ^ Sirri, L.; Fava, G.A. (2013). "Diagnostic criteria for psychosomatic research and somatic symptom disorders". International Review of Psychiatry. 25 (1): 19–30. doi:10.3109/09540261.2012.726923. PMID 23383664.
- Ino, A.; Tatsuki, S.; Nishikawa, K. (June 2001). "The Denial and Awareness Scale (DAS)". Nihon Arukoru Yakubutsu Igakkai Zasshi (in Japanese). 36 (3): 216–34. PMID 11494588.
- Harsey, Sarah (1 June 2017). "Perpetrator Responses to Victim Confrontation: DARVO and Victim Self-Blame". Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. 26 (6): 644–663. doi:10.1080/10926771.2017.1320777.
- Drake, Dan (2 October 2018). "DARVO: Understanding a gaslighting strategy of reversing blame". Retrieved 5 July 2019.
- Freyd, J.J. (February 1997). "II. Violations of power, adaptive blindness, and betrayal trauma theory" (PDF). Feminism & Psychology. 7 (1): 22–32. doi:10.1177/0959353597071004.
- Dampier, Cindy. "R. Kelly's CBS meltdown has a name, says researcher: 'That's DARVO'". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- "Trump's DARVO defense of harassment accusations - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
- It's Called DARVO, retrieved 2019-12-23
References
- Ogden, Sofia, K.; Biebers, Ashley D., eds. (2011). Psychology of Denial (1st ed.). Nova. ISBN 9781616680947.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - Gray, Peter O. (2011). Psychology (6th ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 9781429219471.
- Columbia Encyclopedia. 2003.
- Davidhizar, R.; Poole, V.; Giger, J.N.; Henderson, M. (June 1998). "When your patient uses denial". The Journal of Practical Nursing. 48 (2): 10–4. PMID 9687661.
- Norgaard, Kari Marie (2011). Living In Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262515856.
Further reading
Articles
- Sharot, T.; Korn, C. W.; Dolan, R. J. (2011). "How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality". Nature Neuroscience. 14 (11): 1475–9. doi:10.1038/nn.2949. PMC 3204264. PMID 21983684.
- Izuma, K.; Adolphs, R. (2011). "The brain's rose-colored glasses". Nature Neuroscience. 14 (11): 1355–6. doi:10.1038/nn.2960. PMID 22030541.
- Travis, A. C.; Pawa, S.; LeBlanc, J. K.; Rogers, A. I. (2011). "Denial: What is it, how do we recognize it, and what should we do about it?". The American Journal of Gastroenterology. 106 (6): 1028–30. doi:10.1038/ajg.2010.466. PMID 21637266.
- Vos, M. S.; de Haes, H. J. C. M. (2011). "Denial indeed is a process". Lung Cancer. 72 (1): 138. doi:10.1016/j.lungcan.2011.01.026. PMID 21377573.
Books
- Gorman, Sara E.; Gorman, Jack M. (2016). Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199396603.
External links
Manipulation (psychology) | |
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Positive manipulation | |
Negative manipulation | |
Other manipulation | |
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