Everyone harbors secrets not shared with anyone — not a partner, a therapist or a physician. Typically, these involve fantasies, emotional infidelities, family and financial secrets, and health or hygiene. The reason: they’re too intimate, embarrassing and humiliating. They conflict with our self-image and our ego ideal.
Concealing secrets, all of us recognize, exacts a cost. Sometimes the cost is mental: carrying a secret requires us to expend mental energy that could otherwise be directed elsewhere. It may leave us feeling guilty or ashamed or remorseful.
