The way I interact with people seems to be all about context. I seem to subconsciously decide what mode a particular situation requires, and act accordingly. My best and worst interactions, roughly speaking, involve the two extremes in terms of number of people involved. The best I think is the one-on-one*, where I tend to speak freely in a manner that is most reflective of the "real" me. The worst seems to be the existence of a group, where I think it must be a lack of confidence that makes me hesitant to speak at all. This is understandable, but really needs to change to some degree. There's no point talking about art serving as a crutch and how bad that is but then not doing anything about it. People close to me perhaps correctly sense that my hypersensitivity means that there are certain criticisms that I'll likely take badly. But I think I would greatly benefit from someone trying to guide me away from dangerous states of social stagnation. Till there's a person who can fill that role, I suppose I'll have to rely on stern blog posts.

* I hope you weren't concerned that I was going to say the best was when I'm by myself! Egotism only goes so far, you know.