Deception, Denial and Delusion

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Dollar bill paper airplane flying down the highway

We started an interesting conversation with Cindy Anthony on deception versus denial yesterday. How can we tell when a person is being deceptive versus when they are in denial? As I thought about it, I also wondered how to differentiate delusions in all of this (outside of psychosis)?

Denial, defined by the FreeDictionary.com, is medically defined as “a primitive–ego defense–mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of a …stress-producing reality in his environment.” I’ve seen other places add “in the presence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary”.

Delusion, defined by the Free Dictionary.com, is defined as “a belief held in the face of evidence to the contrary, that is resistant to all reason.”

I feel I have a good understanding of these, but I am not able to verbalize it so I thought it would be fun to see if we as a group can narrow these down and create a list of how to determine if someone is each of these things. What differentiates each of these? What are unique attributes to each of them?

What is the biggest lie you’ve ever been told?

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View of brightly lit room from doorway of a dark room

I thought I’d ask you: What is the biggest lie you’ve ever been told? Do you want to share it with us? I know there are some whoppers out there…Maybe you can help others by sharing your story…

Did you see any clues to the lie? Do you see any now in hindsight that you aren’t so close to the situation anymore?

I usually take off this week and I am going to be stepping away from the computer for the next few days to take a break. The hubster is off and we just plan on relaxing and enjoying ourselves. I will check messages and comments, but I may be slower to respond. I hope you understand. Sometimes its good to clear the brain and get refreshed!

People in Power: Better Liars?

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Obama, With Former Presidents Bush And Clinton, Speaks On Haiti

Check out this study, People in power make better liars, study shows:

“Power, it seems, enhances the same emotional, cognitive, and physiological systems that lie-telling depletes. People with power enjoy positive emotions, increases in cognitive function, and physiological resilience such as lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Thus, holding power over others might make it easier for people to tell lies.”

Read more here. What do you think? I’ll share my opinion in the comment section below.

River Cruz

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The other day a reader asked me for my opinion on River Cruz on my Feedback page. Cruz is the woman who claims she had an affair with George Anthony, and that George confessed to her that Caylee’s death was an accident.

Read moreThe reader wrote:

River Cruz supposedly had an affair with George Anthony two years ago. Supposedly authorities came to her to get the info. She says that she is not hoping to make money off of the information. Both she and her sister Skye Benhaida were interviewed. Videos of both are on WFTV. http://tinyurl.com/y... more

River Cruz supposedly had an affair with George Anthony two years ago. Supposedly authorities came to her to get the info. She says that she is not hoping to make money off of the information. Both she and her sister Skye Benhaida were interviewed. Videos of both are on WFTV. http://tinyurl.com/ykrveth

http://www.wftv.com/news/22846532/detail.html

http://www.wftv.com/video/22828740/index.html

They’re all short videos. Do you think that the two women are being truthful. I thought that the sister seemed to be taking delight in the whole thing on her first interview. River Cruz herself seems to want to be left alone and doesn’t seem interested in getting attention for this although my guess is that she’ll be happy enough if she gets some money from the tabloids in the end.

http://www.wftv.com/video/22847997/index.html

I responded two days ago on the 17th (I just see UserVoice isn’t showing dates! What the heck? They used to):

These two are sending mixed messages. There is quite a bit of shoulder shrugging where I wouldn’t expect to see it. This is also not a high stake lie, but I don’t believe we are hearing 100% of the truth. I’d need to see more to break it all down.

There is definite interest to get money from this, if you want my opinion, from both women. Was there an affair? I am undetermined at this time.

Nancy Grace interviewed River Cruz’s sister on her show on the 17th. You can read the transcript here, and River’s sister denies selling the story to the National Enquirer or having interest in any money.

Yet last night on Nancy Grace, what do you suppose Nancy Grace was holding up? The National Enquirer with River Cruz’s story!

Is that a hit? A success at calling out a liar? You decide. I’m pissed User Voice doesn’t have date stamps anymore! We all need to complain to them to change that!

Toyota Owner’s Story

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This woman’s story in what she experienced in her Toyota (how the car functioned) is exactly like what I experienced. I found this fascinating because I 100% believe her here… She’s also a great study in honesty! I talk about what happened to my Honda in this post here.

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