Dissonances, Anxiety, and Addiction (Intl. Conference on Addiction, Psychiatry and Mental Health)
Channel: Prof. Sam Vaknin
Date: 14/10/2019

Video presentation in International Conference on Addiction, Psychiatry and Mental Health held in Rome, Italy on November 11-12, 2019

https:/www.coalesceresearchgroup.com/conferences/psychiatry/sessions

"Volitional Dissonance" is form of cognitive dissonance: simultaneously harboring two or more conflicting pieces of information or contradictory thoughts

The volitional variant is when we act in ways which we perceive to be akratic, immoral, or antisocial, rather than phronetic. When we perceive our actions to have been the outcomes of akrasia (weak willed misbehavior contrary to our best judgment) and not of phronesis (good judgment, excellence of character, habits conducive to eudaimonia - a good life - and practical virtue)

Dissonance is intolerable. We resolve it by using a variety of, mostly alloplastic psychological defense mechanisms - like displacement or rationalization - and narrative solutions, such as reframing

We also tend to externalize the locus of control (and thus our agency, self-control, autonomy, or free will in the matter): It wasn't my fault, something or someone made me do it or inexorably and irresistibly led to what happened!

Other dissonances include:

Emotional Dissonance (aka ambivalence): experiencing two opposing emotions (such as love and hate) which are elicited by the same object;

Axiological Dissonance occurs when two dearly upheld and deeply felt values are incompatible; 

Deontic Dissonance is a subspecies of this dissonance: when one has two irreconcilable duties or obligations;

An Attitudinal Dissonance is an inner conflict between two internalized beliefs, attitudes, statements or propositions held to be true.