Lies in our lives

There are inherent lies, conscious lies, compromise lies and intentional lies.

• The first category of lies are those inherent in many life decisions. The most neutral example must be the inherent lies a slave holder tells himself.
• Conscious lies are those we are aware of, but made in passing, though we did not start out intending a lie. White lies, promises made to children or spouses without intent, excuses made for not turning in homework on time and more.
• Compromise lies are similar to inherent lies, they are those which are parts of the compromises we make in the way we live (e.g. lying to yourself about how much you drink or how much you eat, transferring your emotions to not admit the truth about what in our lives makes us angry, lies about our motivations).
• Intentional lies are those lies we mean to tell (such as those actively or passively told in negotiation or by a swindler).

Those are the interrelated ways in which we lie to ourselves.

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A powerful post on some of that in action is at feh-muh-nist

As for Calvanism, which often causes people to lie (all wealth is a sign of God's grace and inherent virtue is a common neo-calvinist belief), here is a post on health as the new Calvanism (among other things).

Or some doctors who told some very interesting (and related) lies to themselves.

I was thinking more about co-dependent behavior, subsumed hypocracy and the lies people believe (such as negotiators who lie best when they believe what they are saying), but those examples brush against the edges of the concept and illustrate parts of it well.