Denial: An Easily Spotted Ego Defence, But An Easily Ascribed To

It is often difficult to verify the existence of an ego defence, but a person’s denial in the face of hard evidence to the contrary can easily be spotted by almost anyone else.

Problems arise in the absence of hard evidence, not only because the denial can no longer be spotted, but also because it can be imagined or invented by others. Indeed, the charge of denial can be levied at anything and everything that a person can say or do that runs contrary to some pet theory about her, such that the pet theory can only ever be supported but never refuted.