Mask has been a popular word for last three years. During the Covid-19 pandemic years, Hebrew Language Academy published an explanation regarding the root of this word. They connect it with a biblical text from the book of Leviticus verse 13, 45. “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!”. Sadly, people tend to wear not only material masks, but also masks on their personality; in both situations the intention of the subject is to cover something which one considers as unclean or less perfect. There can be many reasons behind one’s attempt to mask oneself, which can be both conscious and less conscious efforts. Various kinds of fears such as fear of being judged, rejected, disliked, misunderstood, ridiculed etc. can be some unconscious element while one masks the fragilities before others.
Behaviour of masking oneself can be generated from a parenting style which overly and repeatedly emphasize the ideals and within the family atmosphere where the vulnerabilities and fragilities of the individuals are less accepted. The priority for the values like truthfulness and transparency in the hierarchy of values of individuals within their conscience formation also matters most. The pressure of expectation and the need to maintain an ideal selfimage in front of others would eventually lead some to a culture of hypocrisy. Even if one wants to face the truth of his false self, external pressures to be a model person silence the inner turmoil between two selves within and front of a video camera. But many a times a society remains like a surveillance camera which captures the life of others, which make the life of others more plastic. An individual is not true to oneself while he/ she smiles even while is sad; laugh at the moment of the anger; say ‘yes’ when the real answer is a big ‘no’.
An empathetic community and a significant presence of unconditional acceptance can help a person in unmasking one’s fabricated selves. Such a presence would enable the individual to take courage to try trial-and present a semblance of stability and normalcy (Sebastian, 2016, p. 350). Society and family contribute a lot to the imbalance the expectations within each career and life style. A judgemental environment within a community endangers the value of sincerity and truthfulness. Highly judgemental atmosphere indirectly promotes a culture of masking one’s true self in order to get better judgements from others. None would prefer to live in error method and thus helps one to learn even from one’s own mistake. “The only environment that can lead to change and growth from self-division is one of unconditional acceptance” (Sebastian, 2016, p. 353). An environment of unconditional acceptance and empathetic presence can do wonders in unmasking the hypocrite characteristics in the individuals