Living a lie

Self-defensive lies can permeate all one does, so that life turns into "living a lie".

Professionals involved in collective practices of deceit give up all ordinary assumptions about their own honesty and that of others. Individual who feel obliged to pass as a member of a dominant religious or racial group in order to avoid persecution deny what may be most precious to them. Political beliefs or sexual preference unacceptable to a community compel many to a similar life-long duplicity, denying a central part of their own identity.