denial

A psychological defense mechanism initiated by the psyche to temporarily suppress awareness of a deluded self-concept. Denial may be understood as an attempt to reject unacceptable feelings, needs, thoughts, wishes, or even a painful external reality that alters our perception of ourselves. This psychological defense mechanism protects us temporarily from: * Knowledge (things we don’t want to know) * Insight or awareness that threatens our self-esteem; or our mental or physical health; or our security (things we don't want to think about) * Unacceptable feelings (things we don’t want to feel) Some of the forms of denial: rationalization, minimizing or discounting, evasion and displacement, exaggerated emotional responses, projection or blaming, intellectualization, repression, rhetorical ploys, and logical fallacies.