Everyone has a story to tell about themselves. These stories may be an insignificant memory from their childhood or the attraction and reason that led them down the path of life. Everyone has a story to tell about how they see themselves, how others see them, their motivations and goals in life, and their thoughts. However, as an external listener, how can you know that, like drops in an endless sea of stories a person can tell about themselves, their reflections won't distort and ripple just like the sunlights on that same complex sea?
People can present various narratives to you. It could be a truth about themselves, a story heard from someone around them, or a compilation entirely made up of pieces gathered deep within their minds. If everyone has this potential, how can you trust what someone tells you about themselves? Even when a person knows themselves, how can you be completely sure in the absence of doubt? The fundamental solution to all these questions and issues lies in observation and analysis. Looking at people and seeing them, understanding their behaviors, expressions, and postures in their entirety provides you with a real and unshakable answer about them. According to Heidegger, human existence is entirely dependent on their interaction with the external world, everyone and everything around them, and how they exist in their environment and the time process they are in. In other words, human existence is reflected in their interactions with the environment and others, actions, and relationships. Observing a person is an infallible way to unravel the uncertainties that may linger in your mind about the accuracy or inaccuracy of any story they could tell about themselves.
Individuals may see themselves in certain and limited ways. The simplest is what is in their reflections in mirrors or how others see them; the length of their hair, the bags under their eyes, freckles on their cheeks, and old scars on their knees – all can be seen without deception in a reflection. Perhaps photographs taken without their knowledge or a comment made by someone about them is another way a person sees themselves.
So, how do people see each other? You can see someone's external appearance much like a reflection in a mirror. It is almost a complete map of the person and their experiences; white hair strands and wrinkles around the eyes – or their absence – can offer you a straightforward explanation about the person. Or, without needing a mirror or eyes, it might be someone talking about themselves in a way that you wouldn't reach through opinions; they tell you about their life, the color of their eyes, the curls of their hair, the dog they had when they were in elementary school, and all the meaningless topics they insisted on during high school. But what you know about the person in this case is limited to what they tell you.
So, how do people see each other? You can see someone's external appearance much like a reflection in a mirror. It is almost a complete map of the person and their experiences; white hair strands and wrinkles around the eyes – or their absence – can offer you a straightforward explanation about the person. Or, without needing a mirror or eyes, it might be someone talking about themselves in a way that you wouldn't reach through opinions; they tell you about their life, the color of their eyes, the curls of their hair, the dog they had when they were in elementary school, and all the meaningless topics they insisted on during high school. But what you know about the person in this case is limited to what they tell you.
So, how do people see each other? A reflection in a mirror is one way. Photographs taken without their knowledge or a comment made by someone about them is another way a person sees themselves.
One can create different personalities, memories, and thoughts knowingly and willingly, but an individual's self-perception is far from being limited to reflections in mirrors and windows. From their parents to almost everyone they know throughout their lives, the opinions of others about them, a small sentence a friend said to them when they were twelve, a comment made by a colleague, characters they feel close to in a book they read, and the views and prejudices in the society they live in all shape a visual image of themselves in their minds. And everything you know about them based on what they say is just a puzzle put together from dozens of factors.
If someone says they are 'religious,' you would know they are not truly religious if they do not adhere to the selected rules of the religion they claim to follow and live it in a selective manner, regardless of whether they truly believe in it or not. Someone may tell you they are happy, but if you know them, you notice that they no longer hum songs when walking home with you in the evenings, their smile does not reach their eyes, they behave reserved and distant with everyone. In this case, you would know that they are not truly happy, despite what they say.
Contrary to the views of many existentialist philosophers, who argue that a person is best equipped to know themselves and convey that analysis, it is not always considered that, even if individuals are conscious of themselves, their self-views are never free from the influence of countless other people's perspectives and judgments. What they can tell you is also bound by the same chains, and in today's society, breaking free from these chains is extremely difficult and almost unattainable. Additionally, it is an undeniable fact that a person's behaviors can provide a clear reflection of their mental and cognitive states that they may not even be aware of.
Montaigne is behind the view that people's characters and self-worth are determined by their actions and behaviors rather than what they say. People can tell you everything about themselves, and while you navigate through the multitude of complex, diverse, and infinite things like the ocean floor, you can never be sure which ones to believe or whether you choose to believe in the truth of the things you hear. The answer to all these questions is within your own eyes.
Everyone remains confined within a tangle of judgments forming in their minds, but their actions and the movements they exhibit shed light on their true identity and the true beings hidden among the algae. Therefore, behavior, body language, and actions are the most accurate and clear among many ways one can be seen. The truth about a person lies beneath the observation of their behaviors.
"Looks reveal the soul of a person."
Carl Jung