Denial
Denial is the refusal to acknowledge a threatening reality, even when the evidence for it is plain. It is especially relevant in serious physical illness, where a patient may deny ever having been told their diagnosis, a denial that can persist despite the facts being repeated to them again and again. The term is often used loosely, and inaccurately, for the knowing, conscious avoidance of a painful topic; true denial, as a defence mechanism, operates without the person's awareness that they are doing it.
Illustration
A man recently given a diagnosis of terminal cancer continues to make detailed plans for a holiday eighteen months away, and each time his family gently mentions his prognosis, he changes the subject or insists the doctors are being overly cautious, seemingly untouched by information he has, in fact, been told several times.
Related phenomena
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.