One of the most severe of all problems of evidence interpretation is that of trying to interpret all the confusing signals from the outside as to who one is. In this case, the potential for intralevel and interlevel conflict is tremendous. The psychic mechanisms have to deal simultaneously with the individual's internal need for self-esteem and the constant flow of evidence from the outside affecting the self-image. The result is that information flows in a complex swirl between different levels of the personality... in an attempt to reconcile what is, with what we wish were.
--Douglas R. Hofstadter
Goedel, Escher, Bach