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Misunderstood Payal 4: Self Deception
This is the last piece on the topic of Misunderstood Payal.
Again, the issue I want to touch upon here is one that each one of us indulges to in some extent but in the case of Payal has been super magnified by the CVs - and that is self-deception (or the active misrepresentation of reality) which is a psychological enigma.
As we see in the case of Payal too much self-deception is a bad thing, while a little self-deception may be just what the person needs to get through the day. Here, I am talking about the power of positive illusions, for example - when we are overly optimistic of our own abilities we have increased motivation to complete a task. Coaches always use the positive pep talk to motivate people to achieve higher than realistic expectations.
The key to happiness is to be minimally self-deceptive and to do it primarily for motivational purposes. Payal's self-deception is paradoxical, because in her case the deceiving person and the individual being deceived is herself for although she is aware of Natru's devious nature she is unable to confront it. And to us viewers, it is incomprehensible how Payal can refuse to acknowledge the contemptuous behavior of Natru and family even though she is aware of it!.
This is what makes self-deception such a puzzling psychological phenomenon. For Payal is aware that Natru and company have deceived her and her family, and are misusing her position as PWD engineer for personal gains but yet she feels that as the bahu of the house she has to support them and abide by their wishes! This sounds darned irrational! It is not obvious how such irrationality is even psychologically possible! Clinically this is not pathological - it is indicative of a normal evolving process.
So how does the theory of self-deception explain Payal's behavior? The biological theory of self-deception maintains that by hiding the truth from the conscious mind, we are better able to hide the truth from others. This is sometimes referred to as 'cognitive camouflage' - whereby self-deception is a kind of strategy which allows us to better deceive others by first deceiving ourselves.
There is more that is written about this but I am not going to go into more detail. I just want to put forward this theory to justify Payal's actions and to indicate the extent to which we viewers misunderstand her and the CVs.
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