The persona protects our privacy and most people aren't interested in who we really are anyway.
[M]ost of us have developed a persona to deal with the world. We have a conventional mask. It helps us get along with other people. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a convenient social fiction. For instance, I know your occupations, but what else are you? What's your motivation for being here? I imagine that's more important than your social position. The persona protects our privacy and most people aren't interested in who we really are anyway. There's only a problem when we identify with the persona-when we come to believe that's all we are. Then the shadow steps in. "No", says the shadow, "I'm here too, you are also this". Then we get clobbered by the opposite.
β Daryl Sharp, Getting to Know You: The Inside Out of Relationship (Inner City Books, 1992)
