WHEN YOU are under stress, your hidden self may appear any time your conscious sentinels of reason and consistency are not on duty. Like an illegitimate child who confronts a denying parent, at an unguarded moment your disowned self may seize the opportunity to claim its rightful place in your life.

One time or another, everyone’s hidden thoughts are unintentionally revealed by a slip of the tongue. Embarrassment is softened by resorting quickly to parlor psychoanalysis, discounting the exposure as no more than a familiar instance of the universal fallibility of human nature. “A Freudian slip,” we reassure each other, colluding to make no more of it.

Encountering this evidence of your shadow self may seem foreboding. It will serve you well to remember that your shadow side is not all forbidden, evil impulses but simply a collection of all the personal characteristics that your conscious personality cannot acknowledge.

If God knows everything, what is there to hide?