Private life, too, is within known boundaries, providing a certain safety from slings and rebuffs found more commonly in public exchanges; so although we are not actually different people, it is perfectly natural to design different personas to manage different kinds of exchanges. Insult a brother in private and you can clean it up with an apology and some conversation; insult a banker in public and you may find your mortgage being called unexpectedly for no apparent reason. It's very different territory.

A