PHILOSOPHY

Myriad Mask

We are all actors from the moment we become a kid to the day we rest

How many masks do you wear a day? Not an actual mask but a social persona you undertake for various roles throughout your day. It’s something we all possess and typically develop through our daily life.

What is a Persona?

A more explicit definition would be an aspect of ourselves that someone perceives from the roles we are carrying out at that moment.

Carl Jung, a psychologist in Jungian psychology, saw it as the outward face we show to the world. He mentions it’s the thing that “conceals our real self and Jung describes it as the“conformity” archetype”.

But it should also be noted that we all don’t have a set role or aspect, as we like to change or switch between them.

Subsequently, we tend to defy those roles by not following them. Then start making new ones, as we are constantly constructing new identities.

For example, a person who goes to school would be utilizing the mask of a student or at a job, it would be one of a worker. But that mask can be defied once they graduate from school or quit their job. Before then being reconstructed into something different, like either a teacher or the boss of a company.

Everyone possesses their unique self and convictions that they live by but it isn’t something that we are born with.

There are exceptional cases where we don’t possess our own persona. One would be the infant as during those times we don’t care about the world around and have no need for a mask.

Another one that should be noted is if one is a slave, where you are broken to the point you are not allowed to possess one.

Why is it important to understand your masks?

It’s critical because your mask no matter how many you have are still derived from your ‘true self’. When that persona becomes too different than your real self, you will start to become a mess.

Sometimes becoming emotionally unstable as cracks would start to form before they shattered and broke. In some cases, you started to lose sight of who you are and become someone else.

This can also happen when you put more effort into one persona over the others. You will begin ignoring the others and sometimes your true self, as you start to see that mask as your main self.

In my poem about ‘True Self,’ this was something I attempted to touch on and think about. How having so many masks but persistently ignoring your true self can lead to misery and instability in your life.

How to understand your personas?

First is to have the self-awareness of yourself and understand you are different from others.

No persona is the same, there is always something different or unique about it, as it’s derived from our true self. With it being shaped or reshaped from us being critical of ourselves from external factors like our environment.

Next is there a logical consistency in the type of behavior you are displaying for a specific situation or environment.

For example, when you’re in front of your parents, you are a well-mannered and respectful child who listens to most of the things they say. But you act the opposite with your friends and sometimes co-workers.

Your tone and attitude become different between these situations because your persona is different for each one.

Our behavior, actions, and words are interconnected, with one being able to see a pattern with that persona.

And the final one is, having direct control of that aspect of yourself. Being able to turn off that persona or switch to another one and not let it control you.

A mask is something that we constantly wear and change throughout the day. You can sometimes go the whole day switching between six, seven, or even ten masks.