Recognition of our personality by other representatives of the human race makes us a public person. We are not only herd animals, not only love to be in the company of our own kind, but we even have an innate tendency to attract the attention of others and make a favorable impression on them. It is difficult to think of a more diabolical punishment (if such a punishment were physically possible) than if someone got into a society of people where he was completely ignored. If no one turned around at our appearance, did not answer our questions, did not take an interest in our actions, if everyone, when meeting with us, deliberately did not recognize us and treated us like inanimate objects, then a kind of rage, impotent despair would take possession of us. . Here, the most severe bodily torments would be a relief, if only during them we would feel that, for all the hopelessness of our situation, we still did not fall so low as not to deserve anyone’s attention.
Strictly speaking, a person has as many social personalities as individuals recognize in him a personality and have an idea about it. To encroach on this idea is to encroach on the person himself. But considering that persons who have an idea about a given person naturally fall into classes, we can say that in practice every person has as many different social personalities as there are different groups of people whose opinion he values. Many boys behave quite decently in the presence of their parents or teachers, and in the company of ill-mannered comrades, they rage and scold like drunk cabbies. We present ourselves in a completely different light in front of our children than in front of club mates; we behave differently in front of our regular customers than in front of our employees; we are something completely different in relation to our close friends than in relation to our masters or our superiors. Hence, in practice, the division of a person into several personalities is obtained; this can lead to a disharmonious split in the social personality, for example, if someone is afraid to expose himself to some acquaintances in the light in which he appears to others; but the same fact may lead to a harmonious distribution of the various sides of the personality, for example, when someone, being tender towards his children, is severe towards his subordinate prisoners or soldiers.
The most peculiar form of social personality is the lover’s idea of the personality of the person he loves. Her fate causes such a lively participation that it will seem completely meaningless if we apply to it any other scale than the measure of organic individual attraction. For himself, the lover, as it were, does not exist until his social personality receives a proper assessment in the eyes of the beloved being, in the latter case, his delight transcends all boundaries.
The good or bad glory of a person, his honor or shame are names for one of his social personalities. The peculiar social personality of a person, called his honor, is the result of one of those split personality of which we spoke. The idea that a person develops in the eyes of his environment is the guiding motive for approving or condemning his behavior, depending on whether he meets the requirements of this social environment, which he could not comply with in a different everyday situation. Thus, a private person may, without a twinge of conscience, leave a city infected with cholera, but a priest or doctor would find such an act inconsistent with their concept of honor. The soldier’s honor motivates him to fight and die under circumstances where the other person has every right to flee to safety or flee without stigmatizing his social self.
In the same way, a judge or a statesman, by virtue of his position, finds it dishonorable to engage in money transactions that do not involve anything reprehensible to a private person. It is not uncommon to hear people distinguish between different aspects of their personality: «As a person I pity you, but as an official I cannot spare you»; «Politically he is my ally, but morally I can’t stand him.» What is called the opinion of the environment is one of the strongest engines in life. A thief dare not rob his comrades; a card player is obliged to pay card debts, even if he does not pay his other debts at all. Always and everywhere the code of honor of a fashionable society forbade or allowed certain actions solely to please one of the sides of our social personality. In general, you must not lie, but as far as your relationship with a famous lady is concerned, lie as much as you like; from an equal you accept a challenge to a duel, but you will laugh in the face of a person of a lower social status compared to you if this person takes it into his head to demand satisfaction from you — these are examples to clarify our thought.