Self-Deception

We all go through life acting out some form of Self-Deception. Jean-Paul Sartre the French Philosopher describes it as "a legitimate way of life" he writes about self-deception in his work (Existentialism), "It cannot be either a cynical lie or a certainty - if certainty is the intuitive possession of the object. But if we take belief as meaning the adherence of being to its object, when the object is not given or given indistinctly, then self-deception is a belief".

If you think about it in psychological terms self-deception is very much at the core of self-preservation. We are all imperfect beings, we feel this from the depths of our unconscious psyche; but coming to terms with this is part of a life long journey of self discovery. If we were to confront all our "issues" in one go the chances are we will be overcome with neuroses and suffer a mental break-down. We aren't meant to drop all our intellectual dishonesty at once. Instead those committed to self discovery slowly discover these denials/deceptions at moments of existential crisis and confront these lies as part of the process of becoming whole.

The next time something goes wrong for you in trading or in life, use the situation to see if you can discover the self-deception that you are probably operating under, and try and find the hero within to confront the lie.

Regards,

Michael Berman, Ph.D.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together