I think sometimes buyer's remorse could be a good analogy!
Cognitive dissonance is when you have two very different thoughts/feelings running through you and it's hard for them to exist in the same place. So we justify things so they match up. Cognitive just means your thoughts. and Dissonance means they are different. I think in a psych class once, I was told that humans are so uncomfortable with cognitive dissonance that they figure and figure and figure until they come up with a way to make things agree.
I think WAS's do a lot of this. They feel like they have to be free so they leave the R. Yet, they feel horrible for hurting this person they love. So they justify their actions by deleting all but the bad memories.
