Masks: some of them might remind you of the movie "Eyes Wide Shut".
We sometimes wear masks to hide our fears, angers, jealousy, and other emotions from others--and from ourselves as well. We can call these masks "defense mechanisms" when, for instance, we hide our sadistic impulses behind our mask of "dutiful police officer"*** as we bark orders to the frightened driver.
There is also "impression management", our attempt to come across as, say, an enthusiastic employee who just loves to lay bricks as opposed to our true conflicted feelings of hating construction work but needing the money desperately.
Maybe this is not a black-and-white issue, and that we sometimes need masks to maintain our mental health--depending on how you define it. We sometimes need masks to function in society.
And Tom Cruise needed to wear the mask--literally--to play a role in "Eyes Wide Shut", and a mask called "public relations" to present himself to the public, just like other actors in Hollywood.
In the episode "Frasier's Edge" of the sitcom Frasier, Frasier senses an emptiness upon hearing that he would be presented with a lifetime achievement award. He is unmasked by his mentor Dr. Tewkesbury. Of course the issue is quite more complex but this episode presents a simplified version of how it feels to remove the mask, to come face to face with the truth (assuming his mentor is correct--and that's a big assumption).
Dr. Tewkesbury: My point is that at the age of eight - at eight - you began to use psychiatry as a way to deal with a world that scared you to death. And this lifetime achievement award has made you realize that your career is finite and once it's gone, all you'll have left is that frightened eight-year-old boy.
***this is merely an example and is not meant to imply that police officers are generally sadistic.
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