From the author: I really liked gutta_honey’s reasoning about courage and fear to show your individuality in (I’m reposting the text in full): “People often laugh at Freud. They say that the old man himself was a pervert, because “where did he has such pictures." Why did he suddenly reduce all his problems to sex? This means that his thoughts were swarming with ties and buckets. Freud was very useful for his time with his ideas. Sexuality was considered an indecent matter. Naturally, you can’t escape sexuality, and for some people it quite bizarrely resulted in various symptoms and behavior patterns, and even now, even though society looks at sexuality completely differently, a lot of people still have problems similar to those that were typical for them. Freud's contemporaries. But now the trends are completely different. People very actively reject even the weakest hints that they have problems with sexuality. And in the end, many will say that sex is important, but this is not the main thing. Let's remember Maslow's pyramid. After all, few people admit that they are digging at its foundation with basic needs. Everyone wants more and believes that they have been standing at the very top for a long time, i.e. self-actualization. The point is not that one is critical of one’s problems, but rather that priorities are different in modern society. People are afraid not of their own sexuality, but of individuality. One can argue about whether there is a fear of individuality. After all, even if you ask your friends, the majority will probably say that they want this very individuality and uniqueness. Few people will proudly say: “And I am a typical representative of the gray human mass.” But this is the case with individuality... People want to be individuals and unique personalities in a very narrow range. Getting into a trend is, in the eyes of many people, a manifestation of individuality. If you are in a trend, then you are an individual; if you are outside, then you are a gray mass. Of course, there are fewer people from the trend than from the “gray mass.” If suddenly a person from the provinces wearing felt boots and earflaps wanders into a fashionable metropolitan restaurant, he will be different from the rest. But hardly anyone would call it individuality. Rather, he will be regarded as a stranger and an idiot who finds himself in a place where such people are socially prohibited from appearing. For such people there are dumplings and shawarma at the station. But if a restaurant regular appears in this form, he will be evaluated more favorably, and perhaps create a new trend within a trend. People tend to see individuality in those they like and understand. Those who are not in their group are usually regarded as hostile. However, for too bright manifestations of individuality within one’s own social group, one can also be pushed out. For this reason, people are afraid of breaking away from the social group and losing its approval in the search for individuality. But the need for this is great. In the modern world, people are no longer so desperately in need of fellow tribesmen and, in principle, can do without the approval of a social group for a long time. No matter what happens with trends and gray masses, people are still individual, but they try to maintain a mask that relates him to that social group , in which he is located. People do everything to have everything as others have or to support some myth that they are still individual. But not too individual, just a little, at a safe level. To be “safely individual,” people rely on external sources. They will tell you in which direction those who want to be an individual should currently go. What kind of winter boots unique personalities wear, what lipstick they use, what women and men are in fashion, what to read, what to think about, what values ​​to have, what to expect from life. There are also recommendations on how to show your individuality by buying a new handbag or shoes. Even if you belong to a very small but very fashionable social