"We tend to celebrate realism as a virtue and mock delusion as a flaw, yet many of humanity's greatest leaps from entrepreneurship to art to love depend on some level of self-deception. The belief that we can create something extraordinary is rarely rational, given the odds at play, and what drives us to greatness is aspirational fiction at best. And yet, that fiction is also exactly what moves mountains when we deploy it with strategic intent."
"In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-5), delusions are defined as false beliefs held firmly despite clear contradictory evidence. McKay, Langdon, and Coltheart (2005) emphasize that such delusions typically impair daily functioning, disrupting the individual's ability to distinguish imagination from lived experience. Delusions of this kind are not quirks that we should trivialize in the name of self-help; instead, they're symptoms of serious disorders that can cause immense suffering to those they afflict."
Strategic delusion enables people to imagine and pursue goals beyond what sober probability would recommend, fueling bolder creation, risk-taking, and persistence. Clinical delusions, as defined in the DSM-5, are false beliefs held despite contradicting evidence and impair daily functioning; such delusions cause suffering and differ from adaptive positive illusions. Overconfidence and aspirational fiction often drive visionaries past realistic stopping points and enable rare successes in entrepreneurship, art, love, and growth. Persistent optimism after rejection increases the chance of finding transformative opportunities. Recognizing the distinction between harmful delusion and constructive self-deception allows deliberate deployment of confidence for productive ends.
Read at Psychology Today
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