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These recent events make us consider whether there are any limits to human self-deception:
- A woman whom Herman Cain admits to knowing reported that they had a 13-14-year, on-and-off sexual liaison that Cain terminated eight months ago in preparation for running for president.
- The boy designated as Victim One by prosecutors in the Jerry Sandusky case was forced to leave his high school because of bullying and threats of violence from fellow students that were seemingly permitted by school staff.
- In a phone conversation, the wife of Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine admitted that her husband sexually abused boys working for the team, and then explained how her husband believed he was innocent.
All of the principals in these cases—Cain, Sandusky, the officials at Victim One's school, Fine—had repeatedly denied the accusations made against them. And, you know, their convincing denials seem to have been based in something like their belief that they were telling the truth. The most astute analysis of this phenomenon was offered by Mrs. Fine: "Bernie is also in denial. I think that he did the things he did, but he's somehow through his own mental telepathy has erased them out of his mind."
Of course, we can dismiss Fine as some insane, aberrational figure—but keep in mind "Fine joined Jim Boeheim's coaching staff at Syracuse in 1976 and established himself as one of the most respected assistant coaches at the collegiate level." He was revered by Coach Boeheim, former players, and basketball fans.
Take Republican presidential candidate (as of this moment) Cain. Did he really believe he could run for president with this alleged long-term recently terminated affair in his background? Of course, this recalls the all-time self-delusional political figure, John Edwards, one of the three leading candidates for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination who was supporting a woman he wasn't married to who had had his baby while running for the highest office in the land. In both the Cain and Edwards cases, what is most amazing is the utter conviction and apparent sincerity with which they deprecated the claims that were made against them! How is this possible?
Of course, we can think of these men as extreme examples of self-delusion, as being beyond the human pale. But Cain was until recently the leading Republican candidate for President, a prominent businessman, and seemingly an extremely successful, happily married father and family man. Likewise, Edwards was an incredibly successful trial attorney, a U.S. Senator and a candidate for Vice President of the United States, and an apparently successful, happily married family man.
Oh, and both men are ardent Christians.
On The Chris Matthews (Sunday AM) Show, panel member Atlantic Magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan brought up the case of Victim One's being forced out of his school. Matthews incredulously asked "What do they say—how do they justify—doing that?" As though humans find it hard to explain away their behavior as being right, as being what they claim it to be, of denying outside perspectives. They don't—such self-deception is an essential aspect of human functioning, one that is only called into question when the police are called in. In some cases—as with Sandusky, students and staff at PA's Central Mountain High School, Edwards (and the all-time champ—OJ Simpson) not even then.
Oh, one other recent example—the verdict of manslaughter for Dr. Conrad Murray in the Michael Jackson case. In delivering the sentence, the judge noted how Murray had reconstructed events to believe that he was the offended party, a victim at the hands of the dead Jackson!
Human beings live in their own worlds, where they must feel okay. They will do any mental work they must do to maintain these worlds. When their self-centered world views are challenged, people often become suicidal (as did Dr. Murray). These events are not unusual—the students and staff at Central Mountain are typical, normal representatives of the species. As much as we might wish it to be otherwise, therapy, groups, religious and spiritual development all mainly serve to provide people with superior replacement delusional universes.
Sorry.
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