Self-deception (n.) about the world recoils on us: tilting at a false picture of the world, we become unreal, foolish and ineffectual, and are overcome by the superior power of reality.
Self-deception (n.) is the Westerner living in a thick cloud of incense he burns to himself, so that his own face is veiled in the smoke.
Self-deception (n.) about one's own evil has a dissociating effect that breeds neurosis, including feelings of inferiority.
Self-deception (n.) grows subtler with intelligence: the more cultivated a man, the more finely he fools himself — no reasonably intelligent person should think himself either saint or sinner.
Self-deception (n.) is the neurotic climber who flatly calls a rock-face unclimbable rather than admit his funk; his libido splits, the two halves fight a useless civil war, and he becomes incapable of any new enterprise.