"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth." (Oscar Wilde)

This quote is taken from Oscar Wilde's essay, 'The Truth About Masks' in which he reviews the power of disguise and its ability to not only alter a persons behaviour, but to fool their audience into believing that they are something other than their ordinary selves.

He discusses how costumes and disguises were a vital role in Shakespeare’s plays as they created a dramatic effect that stretched beyond appearance. By introducing a disguise, Shakespeare introduces a new character. To the audience it is still the same character only pretending to be someone else. However, to anyone unaware of the disguise, the character is a completely different person.

Similarly to Lacan’s ‘structure of the psyche,’ Kohut’s self-psychology focuses on the idea that we experience stages as young children that affect our personal development. These stages are mirroring, idealising and alter ego.

One particular aspect of self-psychology, which Kohut explores, is alter ego transference – when a person projects certain characteristics of their own personality onto an object or imaginary person created within a fantasy. Kohut defines alter ego transference as a response to narcissistic tendencies as the person is creating a new personality from their own characteristics.

Kohuts analysis shows that the creation of the alter ego goes deeper than visual aspects. I initially considered an alter ego to be a personality that is invented in order to allow the person to behave in a way they usually wouldn’t under their own identity. Kohut, however, describes it as an example of mirroring as the alter ego reflects aspects of the subject.