Editing Ghost (section)

==Metaphorical usages==
[[Nietzsche]] argued that people generally wear prudent [[persona (psychology)|masks]] in company, but that an alternative strategy for social interaction is to present oneself as an absence, as a social ghost – "One reaches out for us but gets no hold of us"<ref>Quoted in Gary Gutting ed., ''The Cambridge Companion to Foucault'' (2003) p. 235</ref> – a sentiment later echoed (if in a less positive way) by [[Carl Jung]].<ref>C. G. Jung, ''Two Essays on Analytical Psychology'' (London 1953) p. 197</ref>

[[Nick Harkaway]] has considered that all people carry a host of ghosts in their heads in the form of impressions of past acquaintances – ghosts who represent mental maps of other people in the world and serve as philosophical reference points.<ref>Nick Harkaway, ''The Gone-Away World'' (2008) p. 380</ref>

[[Object relations theory]] sees human personalities as formed by [[splitting (psychology)|splitting off]] aspects of the person that he or she deems incompatible, whereupon the person may be haunted in later life by such ghosts of his or her alternate selves.<ref>Michael Parsons, ''The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes'' (2000) p. 83-4</ref>

The sense of ghosts as invisible, mysterious entities is invoked in several terms that use the word metaphorically, such as [[ghostwriter]] (a writer who pens texts credited to another person without revealing the ghostwriter's role as an author); [[ghost singer]] (a vocalist who records songs whose vocals are credited to another person); and [[ghosting (relationships)|"ghosting" a date]] (when a person breaks off contact with a former romantic partner and disappears).