Self-deception as Inner Dialogue

In the following article we substantiate the importance of the inner dialogue approach to the phenomenon of self- deception not only from the viewpoint of understanding its mechanisms and nature but also in regard to its diagnostics and correction. The idea, according to which self-deception is a process of dialogical interaction between the voices of deception and truth about oneself, makes it possible to retrace the course of its forming from the extended confrontation of these positions to the stage when the second voice becomes reduced and contracted. An approach for empirical revealing self-deception in external speech, based on, Bakhtin's dialogical principles of analyzing utterances, is suggested. We also outline the main features of self-deception, empirically obtained from the self-descriptions. It is shown how self-deception manifests in verbal intercommunication, particularly, in the process of psychotherapeutic contact, which can facilitate “the involution” of self-deception by reinforcing and unfolding the “hidden” voice of self-opposition.