A group of friends wants to discuss denial, the psychological mechanism for dealing with a situation that is overwhelming. The more I think about the topic, the wider it gets. We had an election recently which was marked by some citizens denying that it was honest and fairly run. We have a situation on our planet in which the general temperature is getting higher and that has many effects. In addition, the number of humans alive at one time is rising and that worries many people. But some people deny there is a problem (We are still doing ok, aren't we?).
I read the advice of an old and experienced Korean monk who advised Americans trying to complete a very arduous experience to focus on what they were doing second by second and not pay attention to the difficulties and the time left in the task. I am interested in that strategy and I realized that focusing on getting the dishes done instead of paying attention to the fire in the kitchen sure seems like a type of denial. At the same time, I am aware of the impossibility of paying attention to everything or even just to every problem.
I looked up "denial" and found 367,000,000 results, leading off with this:
1. the action of declaring something to be untrue.
2. a statement that something is not true.
3. the refusal of something requested or desired.
"the denial of insurance to people with certain medical conditions"
I have a long-standing interest in decision making and deciding whether or not I accept the truth of a statement is definitely a fundamental sort of decision, one that I make many times a day.
A few months ago, I got a book of photographs that a professional photographer had offered to others but were not accepted. She subtitled her collection "The rejection of rejection". Of course, when I deny the truth of a statement, someone who feels the statement is true rejects my rejection and denies my denial.
