Pride

In this state one imagines one is capable of functioning without God, which is equivalent to claiming one is God. Since this is clearly not the case, one has to go through a series of self-deceptions and self-justifications which are never totally convincing so that one is a prey to fear.

One of the eight logismos of Evagrius Ponticus, which are all ways of choosing to see from a false perspective, of choosing the bad or unreal rather than the good, reality.