In a world full of danger, to be a potentially seeable object is to be constantly exposed to danger. Self-consciousness, then, may be the apprehensive awareness of oneself as potentially exposed to danger by the simple fact of being visible to others. The obvious defence against such a danger is to make oneself invisible in one way or another.

The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (ed. Penguin UK, 2010) - ISBN: 9780141962085