Trying to cross the border back into his own country, a young man loses all his identification. As an old story goes, a suspicious policeman waits while the confused and frightened young man frantically searches for his passport. Finally, he finds a candid snapshot and, in desperation, thrusts it at the officer. “See, surely you can see that it’s me!” Seeing that it is a photograph of the young tourist’s face, the officer lets him go with an apology: “After all, how could you be wrong about who you are?”
Imagine being mistaken about who you think you are. That’s one of the few things in life you don’t have to worry about. Or is it? What about those embarrassing moments when something you did unintentionally revealed a discrepancy between your image of yourself and that seemingly less acceptable person you sometimes turn out to be. Such disruptions make us feel self-conscious . Then we realize just how vulnerable we can feel when confronted with the deceptively simple question, “Who am I?”
The false images we create to conceal our real selves from others may fool us as well.