"This book is indispensable reading for all psychotherapists. It explains not only why many clients cannot break out of the self-justifications that keep them stuck, but also how we can learn to discover and correct errors in our own clinical practice." - Harriet Lerner, author of The Dance of Anger
Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why the endless marital quarrels over who is right? Or the parade of public figures unable to own up to their messes? Self-deception helps reduce the "cognitive dissonance" that results from feeling that we - who are smart, moral, and right - did something that was dumb, immoral, or wrong. Mistakes were Made explores this phenomenon and explains how to let go of the need to be right, so that we don't keep making the same mistakes over and over again.