Denial is an emotional hearing problem, or emotional deafness.
With auditory deafness, the problem is sensory; with denial, the problem is conceptual. Denial is a combination of a refusal to think carefully and an acceptance of a conclusion that isn’t warranted by the evidence. At the core, denial is an acceptance of the conclusion: “If I don’t think about this, it won’t have relevance in reality.” But reality goes on its way whether you accept its relevance or not.