I think it may be Buddhist but I’m not sure. I’d like to find the exact saying if anyone knows. It goes something like this. Each person is actually three people. THere’s how you see yourself. How others see you, and there’s who you really are.
Anybody know where that comes from?
I vaguely recall encountering it in the last issue of Clive Barker’s comic “Hokum & Hex.” However, I do not recall where it comes from. Sorry.
It reads a lot like 20th century pop psychology, or a paraphrase of an older idea in that context. Beyond that, I can’t help.
Some googling wound up with a few pop psychology sites and a christian dating service. I think ultrafilter is probably right, though I couldn’t find who came up with the phrase in the first place.
That is sort of like the concept in Rashomon. Maybe it comes from Shinto.