In the nineteenth century, there was a Muggle psychologist named Jung. In the sense of his analytical psychology, personality was seen as Psyche's manifestation in the external world.
His mentor Freud proposed the iceberg theory, dividing the mind into three levels: consciousness, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. What people could see above the water was consciousness, but it was only a small part of the iceberg. Most of what lay beneath the surface was subconscious, and people rarely saw it easily.
In Freud's system, the most common defense mechanism was repression. People repressed themselves for all sorts of reasons. Besides humanity's instinctive needs and desires, there was also self-respect, love, friendship, and healthy interpersonal relationships. When conflict existed between a person's id and superego, the ego had to make a choice between satisfying personal needs and accepting or rejecting social constraints.
Jung proposed the theory of the persona, the dividing point between the inner and outer worlds. The outermost mask of personality concealed the true self, turning personality into an illusion that acted according to others' expectations. Our body language, clothing, adornments, and so on determined the image in which we appeared before society. Through the persona, people could coordinate the relationship between themselves and society, thus forming a defense mechanism that concealed the true personality and used the persona to embody an idealized self.
Lockhart was the classic example. He had put on layer after layer of masks, until Harry truly had to challenge the Basilisk. Only then did his true face emerge.
It was quite disappointing. The brave wizard described in those books was so vastly different from the real man, and he had stolen those stories from others. The only thing he was good at was Obliviate.
After wearing a mask for too long, one