The search for truth shatters the conventional worldview and comforting illusions about oneself because it demands that a person forsake the habitual, comfortable self-deceptions and fictitious images that once supported their worldview.

Shattering Illusions: The Painful Pursuit of Truth

The search for truth shatters the conventional worldview and comforting illusions about oneself because it demands that a person forsake the habitual, comfortable self-deceptions and fictitious images that once supported their worldview. In the process of striving for objective truth, a person is forced to overcome their subjective tendencies and distance themselves from illusions that seem comforting but actually obscure reality.

As noted in the source " link txt," truth belongs to the realm of spiritual primal values, and the pursuit of it often contradicts our natural inclination to create deceptively elevating illusions for ourselves:
"The quest for truth is one of the primary attributes of the human spirit. ... We are all prone to create illusions of self-aggrandizing deceptions; we feel reluctant to part with many delusions that we consider to be truth." (source: link txt)

This means that the process of searching for truth compels a person to abandon comforting misconceptions, even if they have long served as emotional support. In turn, such renunciation requires a radical restructuring of one's inner world and a reevaluation of oneself—a transition from a familiar, illusory perception to a sterner, more objective understanding of reality. This is also noted in the source " link txt":
"‘The will to illusion’ is deeply embedded in human nature. Some illusions are more useful than truth. From a pragmatic point of view, truth is far from always desirable..." (source: link txt)

Thus, although comforting illusions may temporarily soften life's blows, true understanding demands a complete liberation from them, inevitably leading to a significant internal shift and even the painful dismantling of old constructs of one’s worldview. A striking example of this process is provided in the source " link txt":
"In one moment, the magnificent edifice of scientific thought crumbled to dust, as if struck by an underground blow... A profound shift of the will occurred, and from that moment, the meaning of intellectual activity changed entirely." (source: link txt)

In conclusion, the search for truth shatters familiar perceptions and comforting illusions because it requires a radical renunciation of former self-deceptions, opening the possibility for a person to grasp a more objective structure of the world—even if this process is accompanied by deep emotional experiences and losses.