Self-deception is a major part of what defeats spiritual formation in Christ. In self-deception the individual or group refuses to acknowledge factors in their life of which they are dimly conscious. Or even know to be the case, but are unprepared to deal with: to openly admit and take steps to change.
Quoted in Greg Ten Elsof, I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life, Eerdmans, 2009.
