On Desire: Why we want what we want P.118
… philosopher Bertrand Russell had much to say about the extent to which our desires are beyond our control. Russell points out that we are often oblivious to or mistaken about our motives for acting. Indeed, Russell argues that ‘a man’s actions and beliefs may be wholly dominated by a desire of which he is quite unconscious, and which he indignantly repudiates when it is suggested to him.’ According to Russell, ‘the discovery of our own motives can only be made by the same process by which we discover other people’s, namely, the process of observing our actions and inferring the desire which could prompt them.’ He adds that we are quite proficient at deceiving ourselves about our desires — that we even go so far as to develop entire systems of false beliefs to keep ourselves ignorant of what it is, at base, that we desire.”