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My own favorite model of Cognitive Dissonance comes from the tripartite model of the mind derived from Transactional Analysis. They simplify the mind into Child, Parent, and Adult selves as a way to identify the source of the beliefs that lead to the dissonance. The Child self is the seat of all emotions including love, hate, anger, fear, etc. The Parent self is the part of the mind that retains "instructed" behavior, things you learn from your parents and pastor and teachers and other authority figures. The Adult self is the part of the mind that can reason its way through things.
Cognitive Dissonance occurs when the Child self and Parent self detect a conflict. It takes the Adult self to step in (if it can) to resolve the issue. For example, when I was caring for my mother during her last five years, I watched her fade into the fog of Alzheimer's Disease. My Parent self had a strong sense of duty but my Child self hurt terribly with the pain of watching Mom in that terribly degraded state. It took a therapist several months worth of cognitive therapy to help me recognize exactly what was going on and why I felt so bad that I wanted to end it all. Once I got it all sorted out, those dark feelings receded. It was still tough, but I got through it.
The second time I felt that was at about age 35, when I started reading the Bible to help me get through Mom's situation. I felt a sudden cognitive dissonance when my Adult self realized that all of that religious stuff I was taught as a child was not credible - but the dissonance was that I had learned it from my parents and had to face the idea that the two people I trusted most in the whole world had continuously lied to me since I was born. I fully believe this is why some folks are so vehement about religion. If they accepted that God or Allah or Jehovah or (pick your favorite other deity) isn't real, they would have to face the massive cognitive dissonance of recognizing the lies propagated by earlier generations starting with their parents and going back a few hundred generations.
Cognitive Dissonance occurs when the Child self and Parent self detect a conflict. It takes the Adult self to step in (if it can) to resolve the issue. For example, when I was caring for my mother during her last five years, I watched her fade into the fog of Alzheimer's Disease. My Parent self had a strong sense of duty but my Child self hurt terribly with the pain of watching Mom in that terribly degraded state. It took a therapist several months worth of cognitive therapy to help me recognize exactly what was going on and why I felt so bad that I wanted to end it all. Once I got it all sorted out, those dark feelings receded. It was still tough, but I got through it.
The second time I felt that was at about age 35, when I started reading the Bible to help me get through Mom's situation. I felt a sudden cognitive dissonance when my Adult self realized that all of that religious stuff I was taught as a child was not credible - but the dissonance was that I had learned it from my parents and had to face the idea that the two people I trusted most in the whole world had continuously lied to me since I was born. I fully believe this is why some folks are so vehement about religion. If they accepted that God or Allah or Jehovah or (pick your favorite other deity) isn't real, they would have to face the massive cognitive dissonance of recognizing the lies propagated by earlier generations starting with their parents and going back a few hundred generations.