Blocking out, turning a blind eye, shutting off, not wanting to know, wearing blinkers, seeing what we want to see . . . these are all expressions of 'denial'. Alcoholics who refuse to recognize their condition, people who brush aside suspicions of their partner's infidelity, the wife who doesn't notice that her husband is abusing their daughter - all are supposedly 'in denial'. Governments deny their responsibility for atrocities, and plan them to achieve 'maximum deniability', while bystander nations deny their responsibility to intervene. New climate change research spawns theories of...

Blocking out, turning a blind eye, shutting off, not wanting to know, wearing blinkers, seeing what we want to see . . . these are all expressions of 'denial'. Alcoholics who refuse to recognize their condition, people who brush aside suspicions of their partner's infidelity, the wife who doesn't notice that her husband is abusing their daughter - all are supposedly 'in denial'. Governments deny their responsibility for atrocities, and plan them to achieve 'maximum deniability', while bystander nations deny their responsibility to intervene. New climate change research spawns theories of...