Monday, June 05, 2006

 

Roles and masks

Had an interesting chat with Sally at London Colney yesterday about masks and roles (or vice versa). I said that I'd expand on it, and as she's just prompted me, I thought I'd do it now.

The way I remember it, Sally made a remark that we all have masks, then said that maybe we don't, but then re(re)considered and said that as we present different faces in different situations, we _do_ necessarily have masks. Or something like that. Anyway, I wasn't sure I agreed, and I thought I'd try to explain. I'm coming to this with a fair amount of background in sociology and related management theory, but I don't know that's good or bad! I'm sure there's some good psychological theory to apply here, as well, and although I have an inkling of some of this, and it might show through, but don't take anything I say as gospel 9as it were).

I'd say that a mask is something behind which we hide, and which presents a false - or partly false- view of our presonality to the world. There are times when we all need masks, in particular when we are vulnerable, but most people would say that reduced use of masks is a sign of maturity - though there may well be situations where most of us will find ourselves hiding our true feelings and presenting that falsity I mentioned above.

However, in most situations where we're fairly at home, or at least where we know how to react, we don't need to present a mask. That doesn't mean that we'll react the same in all situations, but just that we adopt different roles. At home, in a family situation, for example, it might be considered appropriate to cry when you receive bad news. In a work situation, this would in many cases be entirely inappropriate. But just because you react differently in different situations doesn't mean that you are adopting a mask - in fact, you're adopting different roles which are both true to your personality, and which are appropriate for different situations.

Much of the time, we do this automatically, but there are times when we behave inappropriately for situations. Sometimes we'll do this on purpose - for humorous reasons, or to shock - and sometimes by accident - because we've misread a situation, or when we're disinhibited by tiredness, illness, drugs or alcohol. An understanding of when to use roles - and when to step out of them (a business man or woman in a suit might not hesitate to strip down to underwear in order to save a drowning stranger) - is in fact a very mature skill to have.

I've rather assumed that maturity is a good thing, and in many situations, it is. But there are times maturity is best displayed by acting in an "immature" fashion - but here (I'd argue) we're really arguing semantics. Immature behaviour can be an example of a mature personality. Nor would I pretend that what counts as a mature personality is the same in all cultural settings, or that roles aren't culturally specific (they very definitely are - try adopting a role appropriate for a West Coast software start-up when visiting a German bank to discover this).

And I've taken a rather simplistic view of personalities, with implicit assumptions that our personalities are fixed and coherent, when they are often not. Also, I wouldn't suggest that we can always take a conscious view of role or mask adoption: in fact, I'd generally assume the opposite.

Generally, using a mask suggests that we are out of control, and are worried about presenting what we see as our "true" personality. It's very easy to use masks and not know that we are, and a mask can, presumably turn into a role as our personality morphs into a new configuration: at what point does a mask become absorbed into who we are, and when is that bad? I really don't have answers to these questions - and I feel that I've delved too much into amateur psychology as it is, so it's time to stop there.


Comments:
Mike
a big thank you for that- I was a professional mask wearer- only God stepped in and stole my mask away- at time it makes me feel very vulnerable and most immature, but without the mask I can be me- warts and all.
However there are times when the mask is necessary...
got me thinking again
 
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