ERM* – Delusion: the Elephant Duped

Another way of looking at delusion is to see it as our Elephant being duped – that is, fooled or deceived into accepting certain facts and/or beliefs that conflict with reality and an ordered epistemology. Here are some of the ways that the Elephant is vulnerable:

1 – Perceptual Delusion (driven by illusion) – is mistaking the world as other than it is because the evidence is deceptive.  This “delusion by illusion” is triggered by an external or outside stimulus, giving rise to a sensory distortion, sometimes one that can result in an alarming reaction, like surprise, fear, or even panic.

Illusion is (relatively speaking) the easiest delusion to identify and correct; that is, looking more closely at, or from a different angle, or prompted (whether by personal curiosity, fear, or even by someone else!) into further investigation might clarify the misperception – even if the illusion continues to persist.

2 – Affective Delusion (driven by emotional avoidance) – is “choosing” to suppress or deny thoughts and behaviors that could lead to unpleasant or painful outcomes. “Choosing” refers to a Rider/Elephant collaboration wherein a kind of silent agreement is made “not to go there” (there being the issue or reality one wants to avoid having to acknowledge, confront, and deal with because it may be embarrassing, unpleasant, threatening, or painful to do so).

3 – Doctrinal Delusion (driven by false beliefs) – is where an accumulation of conditioned or unexamined beliefs result in a view of how something (in the world) “truly works,” or “should work.” The Elephant is especially vulnerable in childhood to such manipulation, as is too the adult unskilled in critical thinking and introspective practices.

This kind of delusion is usually the most difficult to dispel…because it seems no amount of facts, evidence, or argument is likely to pierce the perceived logic, rationale, or “rightness” of that view. Unfortunately, what’s really at play here is most likely a closed mind, one inescapably preoccupied with defending a self  that is precariously constructed on some fanatical infallibility and arguably fueled by an indomitable ignorance.

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*Elephant/Rider Model: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt, 2006.