How the mask grows into the face – and what becomes of it
There’s a clear pattern among the enemies of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – one well known in psychology and expressed by the formula: “the mask grows into the face.” But how does it happen?
Strange metamorphoses
Watching those who now attack the UOC, listening to their increasingly brazen and grotesque rhetoric, you get the feeling they genuinely believe the things they say. Take, for example, the latest remarks by Yuriy Chornomorets, an OCU theologian, DESS expert, Professor and Doctor of Sciences. In his hatred of the UOC and its faithful, he has already descended to outright obscenities.
“Psych ward patients and members of a totalitarian sect – that’s one. Whores and traitors who sold out to the orcs – that’s two. I’m not the state. I wouldn’t bother with you, b*tches,” wrote Yu. Chornomorets in response to a comment by Abbess Serafima (Shevchyk) about how the UOC stands firm despite the authorities’ persecutions of the Church.
From this “theologian” we also regularly hear open calls for violence against members of the UOC. And yet only a few years ago, Chornomorets was a deeply churched believer in the UOC, regularly received Communion, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the works of St. Gregory Palamas, and so on. How does someone travel the road from sincere faith to what seems now to be an equally sincere hatred of the Church?
Another example: the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. We all remember how, as a comedian with “Kvartal 95,” he mocked Petro Poroshenko’s religious policy. We remember how, during his presidential campaign, he criticized those policies more seriously. We remember how, once elected, he met with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, promised to protect the rights of UOC believers, and personally visited persecuted UOC communities in Rivne, vowing to help them. He declared that he would not interfere in religious affairs and would not favor any denomination. And now? Now he calls the UOC a “Russian agency,” orchestrates full-blown persecution, and has pushed through a law to ban the Church.
Another example. The mayor of Cherkasy, Anatoliy Bondarenko, who went from visiting Metropolitan Onuphry for a blessing to participate in elections to calling for the forceful seizure of the UOC cathedral in Cherkasy. How do such transformations happen?
The denial of fact
Accusations against the UOC – that it collaborates with Russian intelligence, spreads Kremlin propaganda, and engages in treason – are not just slanderous. They are irrational. Mountains of evidence speak to the contrary.
First: the UOC leadership has publicly distanced itself from the Moscow Patriarchate’s position on the war, condemned Russia’s aggression, and called upon its flock to defend Ukraine.
Second: many UOC faithful are, in fact, serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, fighting for our sovereignty. UOC clergy pray for Ukrainian soldiers, bury the fallen, and tend to the wounded.
Third: the Church has mobilized massive aid efforts – collecting money for soldiers, helping refugees, supporting frontline communities. Practically every parish and monastery has done something concrete for the country’s defense. Many bishops and priests have received letters of gratitude from the military.
Fourth: since the end of 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and other state agencies have conducted constant raids, interrogations, and searches of UOC clergy – yet have failed to produce any serious proof of wrongdoing.
In 2023, the head of the SBU, Maliuk, stated that his department had initiated more than 60 criminal cases accusing UOC clergy of anti-Ukrainian activities. However, at that time, there were only 7 court verdicts on these cases. And only in the first half of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, more than 650 cases were initiated on charges of treason by representatives of Ukraine's security structures.
So why doesn’t Yurii Chernomorets unleash his fury on them? Why doesn’t Zelensky ban the SBU with a special law? After all, those agencies harbored ten times more traitors than the UOC. Where is the logic?
There is none. But there is psychology – and here is what it tells us.
Self-deception, or the mask as identity
Psychologically, here’s how it happens. A person who knows the truth (in this case, that the UOC is not a “Moscow Church”) begins to publicly declare the opposite – putting on a mask.
This is the first stage. At this point, the person still understands they are lying, but for the sake of reputation, profit, career, or avoiding responsibility, they go along with the lie.
Then, at the second stage, an internal conflict arises in their psyche, a dissonance between what they broadcast to society and the objective facts they are aware of. As Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in the book Being and Nothingness:
Self-deception is when a person simultaneously knows and does not know the truth.
The author of the theory of cognitive dissonance, American psychologist Leon Festinger, writes:
When facts and beliefs do not match, a person experiences tension (dissonance) and seeks to reduce it by changing either beliefs or the perception of facts.
Thus, a person faces a dilemma: accept the inconvenient truth or prefer a convenient lie.
If they choose the latter, then the third stage occurs. In their consciousness, a cognitive process takes place in which a person consciously or subconsciously distorts reality to avoid this internal conflict. That is, they force themselves to believe not in facts, but in their falsehoods, which they produced to achieve their goals, engaging in self-deception. They may also change the significance of facts in their consciousness.
In our case, inflating the significance of those 60 criminal cases against UOC representatives and, conversely, downplaying or completely ignoring the facts indicating the pro-Ukrainian position of the UOC. In psychology, this is called «repression».
Fourth stage: the mask becomes attached to the face. The lie becomes part of the person's identity, and they sincerely begin to believe that their beliefs are correct – in this case, that the UOC is indeed "collaborators" and "FSB agents". Thus, having repressed reality in their consciousness, they remain with their beliefs. American anthropologist and psychologist Ernest Becker in the book The Denial of Death (Pulitzer Prize) writes:
We not only lie to others; we lie to ourselves to live with ourselves.
When the mask becomes attached to the face, a person not only resolves their cognitive conflict in favor of false falsehoods, making it psychologically easier for them to live, but they also become more convincing to others. American psychologist and sociobiologist Robert Trivers in the book The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life writes:
Self-deception evolved as a means of deception: we deceive ourselves to better deceive others.
Then comes the fifth stage – and the most tragic.
In the short term, self-deception relieves mental strain. But in the long run, it destroys the person from within. These changes to the personality can become irreversible. Aaron Beck, American psychotherapist and founder of cognitive therapy, wrote that self-deception fuels a “negative cognitive triad”: a pessimistic view of oneself, the world, and the future. The inner conflict doesn’t disappear – it merely goes underground. And from there, it continues to corrode the psyche.
Symptoms include:
- distortion of memory and reality;
- reduced critical thinking;
- anxiety and depression;
- development of defensive psychological mechanisms (repression, projection, denial).
In extreme cases, this can lead to:
- personality disorder;
- paranoia;
- loss of connection with reality (pseudodementia, confabulations).
There is a way out – but it is long, hard, and uncertain. It requires deep psychotherapy, honest confrontation with the truth, and sustained effort. And even then, success is not guaranteed.
But the Church offers another path – repentance. A sacrament not administered by a therapist, but by God Himself – the Creator of all things. To reach repentance may be more difficult than reaching a psychotherapist, yet once there, nothing is more simple or healing.
For when a man removes the mask, he rediscovers his true face – the one God gave him.
The political mask
When an individual engages in self-deception, the consequences usually affect themselves and those around them. But when a politician does it –someone who influences the fate of millions – the results can be catastrophic on a national or even global scale. Self-deception at the political level follows the same psychological stages as on the personal level, but with critical distinctions.
Stage One: The Strategic Lie
At the outset, when politicians begin knowingly spreading falsehoods, they do so to conform to the expectations of the social groups they depend on for support. Their goal is simple: to gain or maintain power. And since public sentiment shifts, so do the masks they wear.
Under constant pressure to satisfy these shifting constituencies, politicians start saying what their audiences want to hear – even while knowing it’s untrue. The mask is a calculated tool of manipulation, crafted to project the desired image and solidify their position.
Stage Two: Truth Rejected on Impact
This stage usually happens almost instantly. The stakes in the political arena are too high for hesitation. Choosing the truth can cost a politician everything – power, influence, wealth, even freedom or life itself. And so the lie is embraced with lightning speed.
Stage Three: Rationalizing the Lie
Now the politician begins to justify their falsehoods – not only to others but to themselves. In psychology, this is called rationalization. They begin to say:
- “This lie is necessary for the good of the country and its people.”
- “I have no other choice; it cannot be done otherwise.”
- “The enemy is at the gates.”
- “I am saving the country from catastrophe.”
At this stage, a uniquely political phenomenon appears: groupthink. A politician surrounds themselves with like-minded individuals, people from the same loyalist base. These people construct a virtual reality around the leader – a bubble of reinforcement that reflects only the leader’s own beliefs back to them. This is the “mirror room” effect: the politician sees only distorted versions of themselves, never the real world.
Advisors withhold uncomfortable truths, soften bad news, and feed the illusion that the politician is always right.
Stage Four: Believing the Mask
Eventually, the leader loses the very ability to perceive the truth – because it threatens both their ego and their grip on power. They become hostages of their own lies, genuinely convinced they are right. Even when confronted with irrefutable facts, they stubbornly cling to their delusions. Admitting error would mean confessing weakness, failure, and incompetence – not just to the world, but to themselves.
In the echo chamber of loyal followers and sycophants, many begin to see themselves as infallible – some even as messianic figures.
Stage Five: Ideology Becomes Identity
At this point, the lie becomes more than just a personal delusion – it becomes part of the national identity. This is known in psychology as introjection of ideology: when individuals internalize the values and doctrines of the surrounding system – state, society, or culture – mistaking them for their own convictions.
We see this clearly in the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Politicians, followed by media and public influencers, projected their self-deception onto society. As a result, people who once viewed the Church with neutrality or respect now harbor hatred toward it. They justify bans, endorse injustice, and applaud cruelty against believers – without so much as checking a single fact or engaging in critical thought.
The masses are especially vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. It absolves them from the burden of independent choice and personal responsibility. As German sociologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm wrote in Escape from Freedom:
The mass man prefers self-deception if it frees him from anxiety and the burden of choice.
This mechanism – when the mask becomes the man, and the lie becomes law – leads, inevitably, to disasters of national proportions. Or worse. Look at the history of the 20th century, and you’ll find no shortage of examples.
The most chilling lie-masks of all walked among us not long ago.
The religious mask
When a lie – first consciously embraced and then mistaken for truth – becomes a person’s second skin and is directed against God and His Church, the consequences are far more devastating. This is because, in such cases, not only psychological but also spiritual laws come into force. Throughout history, persecution of the Church has always turned back against the persecutors, bringing suffering upon the very nations and states that initiated it.
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap…” (Galatians 6:7).
Let us turn to the Gospel to see how the progression of self-deception and its consequences are described.
Religious leaders and the birth of self-deception
The religious leaders of Israel – the Pharisees – clearly saw that Jesus of Nazareth preached in full accordance with the Old Testament. They saw the astonishing miracles He worked:
– how He gave sight to the man born blind (John 9),
– how He raised Lazarus from the dead after four days, even though his body had already begun to decay (John 11),
– and many other wonders no one had ever performed before.
The Pharisees knew full well that this Man was from God.
The Gospel of John records this openly: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” (John 3:1–2)
Note the detail: Nicodemus does not say I know, but we know – that is, the Pharisees and the Jewish rulers. These were men thoroughly versed in the Scriptures, experts in every letter of the Law, and they saw with clarity that the prophecies of the Messiah were being fulfilled in Jesus.
But they refused to acknowledge Him as the Christ – because they feared losing their power and influence. They also feared a popular uprising that would provoke violent retaliation from the Romans.
“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, ‘What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.’ And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one Man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.’ … Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.” (John 11:47–53)
The cognitive conflict
The Pharisees were caught in a profound cognitive dissonance: on one hand, they witnessed the miracles and recognized the prophecies; on the other, they clung to their status and privileges. Christ Himself exposed this internal contradiction:
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39)
“But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.” (John 5:38)
From the masked elite to the deceived masses
The Pharisees did not merely put on the mask of deception themselves – they imposed it on the people. And so the very crowds who had followed Christ and hailed Him as the Messiah, within days were calling for His crucifixion. This was the result of deliberate propaganda from the religious elite:
“But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release to you?’ They said, ‘Barabbas!’ Pilate said to them, ‘What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ They all said to him, ‘Let Him be crucified!’ Then the governor said, ‘Why, what evil has He done?’ But they cried out all the more, saying, ‘Let Him be crucified!’” (Matthew 27:20–23)
If the people had truly pondered Pilate’s question –“What evil has He done?” – they would have seen that Christ had done nothing wrong, had spoken no wicked word. But they chose not to reflect, to shut their eyes to the truth. The mask had fused to their face. They began to sincerely believe the lie –even though the truth stood plainly before them. And in that delusion, they descended into madness:
“When Pilate saw that he could not prevail … he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.’ And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” (Matthew 27:24–25)
What followed is well known: the brutal destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general (and future emperor) Titus in 70 AD, the slaughter of its inhabitants, and the centuries-long dispersion of the Jewish people. All of it flowed from that collective self-deception and rejection of the truth.
Epilogue: How to Resist the Mask
What can we do to resist self-deception – both personal and societal?
From a scientific perspective:
We must learn to examine facts impartially, critically analyze claims imposed on us, and not be afraid of truth, no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular it may be.
From a spiritual perspective:
All reality must be perceived through the light of the Gospel. Only by reading Holy Scripture and embracing the patristic understanding of it can we truly see the facts – and interpret them rightly. Without this grounding, we are defenseless against manipulation and propaganda.
Only by following Christ’s teaching can we escape the catastrophic collapse of personality that occurs when the mask becomes indistinguishable from the face.
