Fear and Trembling – Masks and Images
24 April 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Kierkegaard explained the sense of being masked, the use of disguise as something closely linked to the awareness of original sin. The experience of shame, according to him, led to the desire to dress, to hide nakedness. In this sense, for him, the mask was the shame of sin extended to the face itself.
Not accepting sin, not accepting to have failed results from illusion, from pretending not to have failed, not to have fallen, not to have being corrupted by desires and temptations.
For Kierkegaard, this “vertigo of freedom” causes man, in an inauthentic way, to deny the temptation, the dialogue, and the seduction of the serpent that had victimized him. For the author, the man states, guilty, his will to achieve, to be autonomous, and believes that through the mask, the disguise, he/she can make it flawless. It is salvation by lie, by disguise.
Feeling guilty usually forces you to seek absolution. From confessionals to habeas corpuses, from divine mercies to legal protection, individuals seek to turn lead into gold, to turn errors into paths to success. Making sacrifices, giving alms are, for some people, ways to atone for guilt. These masks are images from which structures of power, kindness, sufficiency, and autonomy are built.
Psychologically, building acceptable masks and images is a way of hiding what you cannot live with. It is a way of hiding and denying one’s own non-acceptance. In this moment, arises a division that can be summarized by the conflict between authenticity and inauthenticity, between freedom and imprisonment, between truth and lies. The deceiver is also the accomplice of his/her own servitude, as Kierkegaard explains.
Source: https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2019/05/26/fear-and-trembling-masks-and-images/
