The reason it’s still tempting to use “deception” is because I’m focusing on the effects on listeners rather than the self-deceived speaker. If Winston says, “Oceania has always been at war at Eastasia” and I believe him, there’s a sense in which we want to say that I “have been deceived” (even if it’s not really Winston’s fault, thus the passive voice).
Self-deception doesn’t imply other people aren’t harmed, merely that the speaker is deceiving themselves first before they deceive others. Saying “what you said to me was based on self-deception” doesn’t then imply that I wasn’t deceived, merely points at where the deception first occurred.
For instance, the Arbinger institute uses the term “self-deception” to refer to when someone treats others as objects and forgets they’re people.
The reason it’s still tempting to use “deception” is because I’m focusing on the effects on listeners rather than the self-deceived speaker. If Winston says, “Oceania has always been at war at Eastasia” and I believe him, there’s a sense in which we want to say that I “have been deceived” (even if it’s not really Winston’s fault, thus the passive voice).
Self-deception doesn’t imply other people aren’t harmed, merely that the speaker is deceiving themselves first before they deceive others. Saying “what you said to me was based on self-deception” doesn’t then imply that I wasn’t deceived, merely points at where the deception first occurred.
For instance, the Arbinger institute uses the term “self-deception” to refer to when someone treats others as objects and forgets they’re people.