what you are

...a convoluted mess of projected personality?

. . .

Some have learned to think that who they are is nothing more than their outward appearance. They value only how they appear to other people. They can't feel worth unless they are selling themselves in some way or another. They have no sense of intrinsic worth; worth for them is a function of how well they've approximated an idea in someone else's mind. For many, they value appearing some way or another because

. . .

Man no longer dares to appear what he is. What he is is nothing, what he appears is everything for him. ~Rousseau

Man has acquired an artificial self and become alienated from his inner being. The general effect of this concealment and distortion of human nature is to deprive people of individuality. ~book about Rousseau