Ph.D. Many people in organizations are in emotional pain. The source of much of this unnecessary anguish is, I believe, a worldview that alienates people from others, themselves, and the natural world. To continue this unnatural, unauthentic, and destructive behavior, men and women must lie to themselves. Their pain becomes normal, and they become the walking dead characterized by anger, cynicism, indifference, and disengagement. Soon men and women fear their inner voices because the voices tell them the truth about what they are doing to themselves and others.
People are able to deceive themselves and numb their pain through denial.
They jointly establish their own sanity and call themselves normal. Denial allows people to become indifferent, to ignore what happens right in front of them, and to create and sustain a false version of reality. Denial diminishes life and blocks from consciousness what is real. Denial is the alternative to transformation and is a primary defense of addiction. It takes control of us, causing us to do and think things that are inconsistent with our personal values and leading us to become progressively more compulsive and obsessive.