PSYCHOLOGY – More subtle than lying, it is sometimes funny and practiced for the sole pleasure of the verbal contest… But how to clear the ground when someone tries to deceive you?
« I was going to hang up the laundry but the phone rang… » « But if, I had warned you for the meeting, there must have been a problem with your mailbox. » It’s not easy to find the answer to a spouse or a colleague who shows bad faith. More subtle than lying, this defense strategy consists in denying responsibility for the events that occur, by attributing them to circumstances or to other people. What is behind this behavior, and how to deal with it?
Sometimes appearing from an early age, when the child fears being “caught” by particularly severe or demanding parents, bad faith can be linked to a lack of self-confidence, a fear of losing face . « It often represents a way of reassuring oneself : we fear being judged, falling from our pedestal – in our eyes as in those of others – if we admit that we have made a mistake »analyzes the psychologist Jean-François Marmion for whom the “remedy”…
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