Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Public Confessions
Rousseau, one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment, confessed his darkest secrets—everything from petty theft to his sexual fetishes—in Confessions, a public autobiography written with stunning (and often awkward) honesty. He believed that true enlightenment required baring one’s soul entirely.
He wrote about urinating in doorways, abandoning his children, and erotic roleplay, shocking even his most liberal contemporaries. To Rousseau, transparency was a moral duty, not exhibitionism. But centuries later, his TMI tendencies read more like early social media oversharing—proof that the desire to go “full confessional” isn’t just modern.
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