If all mirrors disappeared, descriptions from other people would gain a peculiar kind of authority.

Without a way to see yourself, other people’s accounts would carry a weight they currently do not need to. You would know your own face only through description, which would make you dependent on witnesses and on their honesty. It would also make plain how much of self-knowledge already works that way.

Because the deeper things about you are not visible in a mirror at all. How you come across, what it is like to be on the other side of you, is available only through report. If you have never asked anyone, it is worth asking one person you trust what they find difficult about you, and then not defending.