We wear the mask as a kind of language that expresses the figure one chooses to create. We are divided, contradictory creatures with an uncanny capacity, not only to disguise ourselves from other people, but also to masquerade our own wishes and desires from ourselves. Our defences are methods of disguise – ways of transforming what we find unbearable or transgressively into prosocial and meaningful ambition and fulfilment. This masquerading of desire ensures that there is always the potential of another version of ourselves.