Abstract

This paper examines the paradox of the insecurity sharer: a person who shares with strangers what they are worried about (insecure about). Doing so, violates what Francis Bacon says about friendship: that one only shares such stuff with a friend. In 2014, Guardian journalist Emma Brockes wrote of actress Diane Keaton (who recently passed away), “The irony of all this is that writing about her insecurities to this degree requires her, at some level, to be profoundly secure.” I present three solutions to the paradox: the insecurity sharer is mad; the insecurity sharer is acting; and, a clever solution maybe - what is rational for some famous people to share is simply different from what we (and Bacon) think rational. If you find that you strangely cannot get a good therapist, it is rational to seek help from anyone.