The false self is the mask which shielded us from those who would exploit our vulnerability in the past. The mask protected us from aggression through distraction and conformity; but as we reached adulthood we had become the mask we were trapped in, much to our own detriment, unhappiness and dysfunction in relationships.

The mask shields us from intimacy, it keeps us surrounded by the corrupt and abusive, keeping good people at bay. The mask prevents us from finding happiness and asserting our own personal preferences. The mask keeps us embedded in the fragile porcelain world where we learned to master the uncontrollable storms that threatened to shatter our world.

The mask is a comedic wit or a tough exterior, sycophantic agreement or a senseless contrariety, a bourgeois vanity or a self-abasing altruism.

The mask is slavery.