Denial is probably the most basic of ego defences Definition- It is the simple refusal to admit to certain unacceptable or unmanageable aspects of reality, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

1. Compiled by Col Mukteshwar Prasad(Retd),
MTech,CE(I),FIE(I),FIETE,FISLE,FInstOD,AMCSI
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Ego Defense Mechnism/
Self-Deception Part 1:
Denial

2. Denial
 Denial is probably the most basic of ego defences
 Definition- It is the simple refusal to admit to certain unacceptable or
unmanageable aspects of reality, even in the face of overwhelming
evidence to the contrary.
 An example of denial is a middle-aged physician who ignores the
classic signs and symptoms of a heart attack—crushing central
chest pain radiating into the left arm, associated with sweating,
shortness of breath, and nausea—and casually carries on with his
game of golf.
 Cadaver of an elderly widow who died from an embolism was kept in cold
storage by their two daughters seeking second opinion for 10 years
assuming she was still alive at a heavy price . The local vicar added, “..I
worry what this is doing to the two daughters. They are in denial and it
cannot be helping them in their grieving process ….”

3. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross model of bereavement:The Five Stages of Grief.
 In her classic of 1969, On Death and Dying, the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
introduced a model of bereavement that is commonly referred to as the Five
Stages of Grief.
 This model describes a five discrete stages process by which people react to
grief and tragedy, especially terminal illness or catastrophic loss.
 The five stages are
 Denial,
 Anger,
 Bargaining,
 Depression (or grieving), and
 Acceptance.
 People
 Might move back and forth between the stages, often several times and at
great speed, or
 They might get stuck in one of the earlier stages, failing to come to terms with
their loss or fate.
 Kübler-Ross did emphasize that
 Not all five stages need occur, or occur in the given order, and

4. Sigmund Freud concept of denial.
 Sigmund Freud first formulated the concept of denial.
 His daughter Anna thought of it as an immature ego defence,
 First, because it is especially used in
 Childhood and
 Adolescence,
 Second, because its continued use into adulthood leads to unhealthy
and unhelpful behaviours and a complete failure to engage or come
to terms with reality.

5. Conclusion
 It is difficult to verify the existence of an ego defence,
 But a person’s denial in the face of hard evidence to the contrary can
easily be spotted by almost anyone else.
 Problems arise in the absence of hard evidence because
 ( a)The denial can no longer be spotted
 (b)It can be imagined or invented by others.
 The charge of denial can be levied at anything and everything that a
person can say or do that runs contrary to some pet theory about
her/him. such that the pet theory can only ever be supported but never
refuted.

6. Negative Hallucination
 Denial is closely related to negative hallucination,
 It is the unconscious failure to perceive uncomfortable sensory
stimuli
 For instance, the failure to
 See something that should clearly be seen,
 Hear something that should clearly be heard, or
 Feel something—such as crushing chest pain—that should
clearly be felt.
 Common experience in conversation or in a social setting is for a person to
‘edit out’ a challenging or contradictory remark.
 The person momentarily goes blank, and then carries on as though
nothing significant had been said.
 The ability to hear painful truths is one of the many pre-requisites of
being a good listener.