Reamonn O'Donnchadha

Denial occurs when we fail to acknowledge, or apparently fail to notice, some negative aspect of the real world even though this is evident to all around us. The underlying and unconscious basis for denial is that the perceived threat to our emotional world is too painful to face, and it is only by pretending that it ‘never happened’ that we can feel safe. Continued denial leads to living in an unreal world where nothing bad ever happens, and where the person is never exposed to the reality testing of real experience and so does not learn to survive.