Denial of visual perception.

An adult with the diagnosis of cortical blindness, complaining of a complete visual loss of 2 years in duration, was found to have a small preserved visual field and remarkably preserved visual abilities. Although denying visual perception, he correctly named objects, colors, and famous faces, recognized facial emotions, and read various types of single words with greater than 50% accuracy when presented in the upper right visual field. Upon confrontation regarding his apparent visual abilities, the patient continued to deny visual perceptual awareness, typically stating "I feel it." CT indicated bioccipital lesions sparing the left inferior occipital area but involving the left parietal lobe. The denial of visual perception evidenced by this patient may be explained by a disconnection of parietal lobe attentional systems from visual perception. The clinical presentation is described as representing "inverse Anton's syndrome."     

Double Denial in Attitude Formation1

While expressing their attitude toward an object, people sometimes deny both the probability of attributes that would speak against the attitude and the value of these attributes. We term this kind of functioning double denial. Double denial is incompatible with expectancy-value models of attitude formation. In eight studies of attitudes, values, and beliefs, there was clear evidence for double denial. The evidence was particularly strong for items measuring salient beliefs and for items and groups of participants yielding belief ratings that strongly correlated with attitudes. The results are interpreted in terms of the social functions of values and beliefs in the construing of arguments pro or con an attitude object. It is concluded that beliefs and values are dynamic entities, continually shaped in argumentation, and that expectancy-value models of attitude are inadequate to account for the relationships among attitudes, beliefs and values.     

Retrospective Denial as A Coping Method

Worldwide, gastric cancer is one of the most common and fatal cancers. The majority of patients present with an advanced stage of disease. Even with use of palliative chemotherapy most patients die within 1?year after diagnosis. Medical psychological attention after a diagnosis of incurable cancer is focused on end of life support. This paper presents the care of a patient treated with palliative intent with chemotherapy for an irresectable histologically confirmed gastric cancer. When, unexpectedly prolonged symptom free survival followed, the reaction of the patient came as a surprise to the attending medical team. In this case history we urge those who care for incurable cancer patients, that the rare patient who survives against all odds may require special psychological care.     

Denial in adolescence. Some contradictory aspects

Adolescents are simultaneously subject to extremely divergent feelings of strength and of weakness and dependency, aggravated by intense regressive longings. In order to tolerate and master these feelings, adolescents commonly employ the defense of denial. This may result in splitting. A case except shows how such a defensive strategy may hinder or further psychic development.     

Denial in fantasy and hypomania: an exploration

There is a spectrum of normality and psychopathology in which we see the presence of denial in fantasy, action, and word. The underlying ego distortions, such as the overuse of a denying fantasy in reality testing, will determine the clinical appearance of this mechanism. Traumatic experiences in the first 18 months are a determining factor in the development of these ego distortions. Clinical material is presented that supports a theory of elation put forward by Lewin (1950) who suggests that denying elations are repetitions of childhood dreams with their adult elaborations. In Mrs. A., the denying elations occurred particularly when experiences of castration anxiety or object loss became intolerable.     

Denial and self-denigration in the draw-a-person profiles of alcoholics

The present study attempts to cross-validate earlier findings that alcoholics tend to use more denial and are more demeaning of their characters than controls on the objective-projective Apperceptive Personality Test. One hundred nonalcoholic, nonpatient controls were matched to 100 outpatient alcoholics on age, race, and social class. All subjects were given the objective-projective Draw A Person Questionnaire, which was scored for 14 scales. As hypothesized and consistent with the earlier findings, alcoholics used more denial and were more often demeaning of their drawn characters than were controls. These and other exploratory findings are discussed.     

Denial of the Parental Alienation Syndrome Also Harms Women

Denying reality is obviously a maladaptive way of dealing with a situation. In fact, denial is generally considered to be one of the defense mechanisms, mechanisms that are inappropriate maladaptive, and pathological. In the field of medicine to deny the existence of a disease seriously compromises the physician's ability to help patients. If a physician does not believe that a particular disease exists, then it will not be given consideration when making a differential diagnosis, and the patient may then go untreated. This is in line with the ancient medical principle that proper diagnosis must precede proper treatment. Or, if for some external reason the physician recognizes the disorder, but feels obligated to use another name, other problems arise, for example, impaired communication with others regarding exactly what is going on with the patient, and hence improper treatment. This is what is occurring at this point with the parental alienation syndrome, a disorder whose existence has compelling verification. In this article I discuss the reasons for denial of the PAS and the ways in which such denial harms families. Particular emphasis will be given to the ways in which this denial harms women, although I will certainly comment on the ways in which the denial harms their husbands and children. In the past, denial of the PAS has caused men much grief. Such denial is now causing women similar grief.     

Denial of responsibility: a new mode of dissonance reduction

Denial of responsibility as a mode of dissonance reduction and the conditions under which it is likely to occur were explored in 3 experiments. Two experiments tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, participants prefer the mode of reduction made available to them first, regardless of whether it is attitude change, trivialization, or denial of responsibility. The 3rd experiment tested and supported the hypothesis that denial of responsibility reduces the negative affective state induced by dissonance. The mechanism of denial of responsibility in dissonance reduction is discussed.     

Defending Truth: Legal and Psychological Aspects of Holocaust Denial

Today that form of historical revisionism popularly called “Holocaust denial” abounds worldwide in all its full foul flourish—disseminated not only on Arab streets but in American university newspapers, not only in books, articles, and speeches but in mosques and over the Internet. Can we reject spurious revisionism, or punish purposeful expressions of hatred, and still pay homage to the liberty of thought ennobled by the First Amendment? Are some conflicts between freedom of expression and civility as insoluble as they are inevitable? Can history ever be proven as Truth? This article attempts to answer those questions. Part I describes the background and nature of Holocaust denial, tracing the Nazis’ adoption of a plan for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Problem” through the post-War Nuremberg Trials to the present day. Part II examines the tension between free speech and historical revisionism, presenting various arguments in deference to principles of liberty and opposed to group defamation. Part III addresses the quest for truth in a free society, including psychological and geopolitical analyses of denial and anti-Semitism.     

Denial and Confirmatory Search: Paradoxical Consequences of Medical Diagnosis1

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of medical diagnostic-test results on illness appraisal and the recall of symptoms and behavior. Subjects were tested for a fictitious enzyme deficiency and were told either that the test result was positive (deficiency present) or that it was negative (deficiency absent). In addition, some of the subjects were told the test was accurate 95% of the time and others were told it was accurate 75% of the time. As predicted, subjects judged the enzyme deficiency as less serious and more prevalent when presented with positive test results. Subjects with positive test results also recalled more behaviors that had been labeled as risk factors. Although positive test subjects tended to report more deficiency-related symptoms, diagnosis did not affect the free recall of general symptoms. In addition, information concerning the reliability of the diagnostic test had no effect on judgments or recall but did affect information seeking. Subjects with positive test results were less likely to request a definitive follow-up test when their results were unreliable. The results are interpreted as evidence for independent confirmatory search and denial processes following medical diagnosis.     

Denial and retraction: a challenge for theories of taste predicates

Synthese - Sentences containing predicates of personal taste exhibit two striking features: (a) whether they are true seems to lie in the eye of the beholder and (b) whether they are true can...