Psyche, Science, and Society

Bush and the psychology of self-delusion

April 16th, 2007

Michael Shermer, in Scientific American, writes of the human tendency to rationalize error rather than acknowledge it. Based on a new book by psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), he writes of Bush’s inability to acknowledge error, leading to ever worse policies. Tavris and Aronson are social psychologists who use the language of cognitive dissonance. We psychoanalysts tend to speak of defense mechanisms. But both are getting at that universal human tendency to self-delusion that, as both history and great novels illustrate, can easily lead to tragedy.

Entry Filed under: Bush administration, Iraq, Psychoanalysis, Psychology