Juan Carlos Garelli wrote:
>
> Robert Trivers devotes a whole chapter to the issue: Chapter 16 of
> his book Social Evolution, which he chose to call "Deceit and Self
> Deception".
>
> Concepts on self-deception are wonderfully expounded in that
> chapter, but more important, what he writes about "The Logic of
> Self-Deception" (pp. 415-416) coincides almost exactly with research
> on infant communication (Stern 1985).
>
> Infants interact with their mothers or caregivers intersubjectively
> from birth onwards. During the first 15-18 months of life this kind
> of communication, is preserved from language interference;
> therefore, all characteristics of communication tend to be
> coherent.
>
> When language turns up, what is seen and heard may interfere with
> what is said, and contradictions pop up. Hence, the difficulty
> inherent in consciously lying inadvertently. If, by means of
> unconscious processes derived from the baby's interaction with his
> attachment figure (Bowlby, 1973), what the baby is told becomes felt
> as true in the face of objective falsehood, then the baby will
> deceive himself to avoid rejection from his mother.
>
> Psychopathologically, self-deception characterizes a mental
> condition known as _psychopathy_ or _sociopathy_, which displays a
> number of sub-syndromes spanning a vast range of external
> manifestations: from crime and murder to manipulating others.
>
> This is important, to my mind, since politicians and socially
> successful people are almost invariably psychopaths of different
> kinds of severity. Detecting them, penetrating the barrier of
> self-deception is therefore of the utmost importance for a society
> based on mutual cooperation.
>
> References:
>
> - Bowlby, John, (1973) Attachment and Loss vol. 2: Separation.
> London: The Hogarth Press.
>
> - Stern, Daniel, (1985) The Interpersonal World of the Infant, New
> York: Basic Books
>
> - Trivers, Robert, (1985) Social Evolution, The Bejamin/Cummings
> Publishing Company, Inc.: Menlo Park, California.
>
> JC Garelli
> ______________
>
> In a message dated 29 Apr 97 at 15:37, Jay Hanson mailto:[log in to unmask]
> says:
>
>  > At 11:55 AM 4/29/97 -0500, Edwina Taborsky wrote:
>  >
>  > >First, I feel that homo sapiens is the only species on earth whose
>  > >ability to live is primarily conceptual rather than genetic. By this
>  > >I mean that human adaptive systems are learned rather than
>  > >genetically stored. This gives an enormous amount of adaptive
>  > >flexibility to this particular species. A deer must grow a coat of
>  >
>  > I have quite have a different view of humanity.  Modern
>  > evolutionary theory argues that humans were selected to be the best
>  > at getting their genes into the next generation.  In other words,
>  > best at exploitation[1] and deception[2].
>  >
>  > I see the vast bulk of social theories as merely ways to
>  > rationalize what we are genetically programmed to do.  Moreover, we
>  > are still totally dependent on our natural life-support system.
>  >
>  > Jay
>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>  >
>  > [1] Exploit: To employ to the greatest possible advantage.
>  >
>  > [2] In the late 50s, the social scientist Erving Goffman made
>  >     a stir with a book called THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
>  >     EVERYDAY LIFE, that stressed how much time we all spend
>  >     on stage, playing to one audience or another.  Goffman
>  >     marveled that sometimes a person is "sincerely convinced
>  >     that the impression of reality which he stages is the real
>  >     reality."
>  >
>  >     What modern evolution theory brings to Goffman's
>  >     observation is an explanation of the practical function
>  >     of self-deception: we deceive ourselves in order to deceive
>  >     others better.  In his foreword to Richard Dawkins' THE SELFISH
>  >     GENE, Robert Trivers noted Dawkins' emphasis on the role of
>  >     deception in animal life and added, in a much-cited passage,
>  >     that if indeed "deceit is fundamental to animal communication,
>  >     then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this
>  >     ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception,
>  >     rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to
>  >     betray -- by the subtle signs of self-knowledge -- the
>  >     deception being practiced."  Thus, "the conventional view that
>  >     natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever
>  >     more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of
>  >     mental evolution." pp. 263-264, THE MORAL ANIMAL ,Robert
>  >     Wright; Pantheon, 1994; ISBN 0-679-40773-1.
>
> Juan Carlos Garelli, M.D., Ph.D.
> Department of Early Development
> University of Buenos Aires
>
> Find Attachment Research Center Home Page at:
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3041

        It is exciting to me that Self-Deception is being analyzed in
terms of the psychopathy or sociopathy of politicians. I guess that is an
important application of the concept. If this could be more broadly
exposed to the public it might have a liberating effect on humanity.