Kayfabe of the Self
everyone knows it's a work, and everyone agrees to call it real anyway
Grounded in the research on Pro-wrestling term 'kayfabe'; applied to identity via Erving Goffman's dramaturgy (1956) and Wikipedia: Kayfabe
the setup
Kayfabe is the wrestling rule that you never break character. The feud is scripted, the punches are pulled, everyone backstage knows it's a work, and they all agree to act like it's real anyway. Kayfabe of the self is you running that on your own life: the persona you present as 100% authentic, that you and everyone around you quietly cooperate to never call fake.
where it comes from
The word is carny slang from American wrestling, possibly pig-Latin for 'be fake,' and it stayed an iron rule until the 1990s. The 'of the self' angle is a popularizer's remix, not an academic term, so hold it loosely. But the bones are Erving Goffman's 1956 dramaturgy: you don't have a self, you perform one. Kayfabe is the strict version where the audience is in on it and plays along regardless.