When we analyze the persona, we strip off the mask and discover that what seem to be individual is at bottom collective. In other words, that the persona was only a mask of the collective psyche. Fundamentally, the persona is nothing real. It is a compromise between individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. He takes a name, earns a title, exercises a function; he is this or that. In a certain sense, all this is real. Yet, in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned, it is only a secondary reality; a compromise formation in making which others often have a greater share than he. The persona is assemblance; a two-dimensional reality to give it a nickname.
Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Jordan Peterson
Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Jordan Peterson