But it's also the case that the fact that we think of ourselves as being a nation of equality, a nation where we live by the credo that all people are created equal - even though we haven't lived up to that credo very often in our past - the fact that we believe in that helps us move forward in all kinds of powerful ways. Now, you can look at those shared myths and basically call them delusions and look down at them and say we should look at reality more clearly. But it's true for all nations, which is they are often based on shared myths that we have about our past. And in fact, when you think about the stories and the histories of nations, this is true not just of the United States, which dispossessed large numbers of native peoples in order to make way for the for the United States. Yeah, so the founding myths of all nations are deeply complicated. On how a country that's subjected so many people to slavery, degradation and exploitation came to think of itself as a beacon of freedom and human dignity And the willingness that we have to go into battle to die for one another is perhaps the highest example of ways in which our shared beliefs can produce things that, in fact are both wonderful and powerful. And so our brains are designed in some ways to form tribes with others, to form connections with others, to stand by one another. So this raises the question when we think about visiting a place like Arlington National Cemetery, where the Americans who have lost their lives in combat are memorialized and remembered, the question that arises is why would people give their lives for something that is at its heart a human construction, a human invention? Why would you be willing to sacrifice your life for something that has been invented by other human beings? And the answer, of course, is it lies in the brain's very powerful need for connection with others, for feeling like we're part of a larger group.

A nation really is a shared belief that we have agreed upon collectively. Nations exist because large numbers of people believe they exist, the people who live within the nation and people who live outside the nation. But of course, the nation really is a human invention. When we think about very large things in our lives, things like the nation state, for example, it's difficult to conceive of these things as delusions. On the collective benefits of self-deception a lot of us have indulged in fantasies and daydreams that have allowed us to get through the horror of the past year. But it's also the case for all of us right now, even when we don't have diseases. This is absolutely the case when it comes to people who have serious illnesses when it comes to diseases. In fact, there has been a body of research over the last 20 or 30 years that has made the argument that mental health involves seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses, that when we see the world accurately, completely for what it is, we might in some ways be less functional than when we look at the world optimistically. There are lots of examples in the realm of health that suggest that accurately perceiving our limitations, disabilities and shortcomings might not actually be functional for us. On deluding oneself when faced with serious illness And when parents are deeply invested in their children, when they see their children as unique and special, parents are willing to invest the time and effort needed to raise children properly. Parenting is incredibly hard and time-consuming and costly and difficult.

But there's a reason that our brains produce this delusion when we have children. And of course, when you step back and look at it, you know that this belief has to be a delusion, even though for me it doesn't feel like a delusion. Nearly every parent has the experience that I had when my daughter was born, which is you believe that this child is the most special child in the universe. Think about the phenomenon of parenting and what parents experience when a child is born.

Let me give you the classic example of how a delusion can be beneficial. On how we fool ourselves more often than we may realize

Delusional optimism meaning