"Only the true self can be creative and only the true self can feel real." -- D.W. Winnicott
The false self is a term that was introduced by Donald Winnicott. A number of authors have written of the pressures in one's working life to be something other than one's true self. Some of these quotes remain among the most poignant of any I've collected. In interviews with people who were dying the most common regret was: "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."