Authenticity: A Selfie Admired by Others?

Authenticity is a chimerical concept: Its social normativity is rooted in the enactment of an idealized, aesthetified self without shadow. The truth of the “true-self” is not confirmed by moral standards but by an interaction of self-representation and social mirroring. It is a “selfie” admired by others. Conversely, the hidden and often devaluated false self protects the forthcoming true self which encompasses beauty and ugliness, brightness and shadow, my persona’s public mask, and my inner perpetrator.