identity and disclosure

We are said to be a society dedicated to the pursuit of truth. Yet, disclosure of the truth, the truth of one's being, is often penalized. Impossible concepts of how man ought to be--which are often handed down from the pulpit--make man so ashamed of his true being that he feels obliged to seem different, if for no other reason than to protect his job. Yet, when a man does not acknowledge to himself who, what, and how he is, he is out of touch with reality, and he will sicken. No one can help him without access to the facts. And it seems to be another fact that no man can come to know himself except as an outcome of disclosing himself to another person. This is the lesson we have learned in the field of psychotherapy. When a person has been able to disclose himself utterly to another person, he learns how to increase his contact with his real self, and he may then be better able to direct his destiny on the basis of that knowledge.

-- Sidney Jourard, The Transparent Self

Difficult decisions: the resulting pains of trying to reconcile different aspects of myself with different people. I'd like to incorporate all aspects of my identity for everyone I know, but either I, they, or my identity is not yet ready.