A favorite phrase, in political namespaces especially, is "saying the quiet part out loud".
To my ears, that phrase also sounds like a leftover from parenting, as in: "use your words". One might regret when junior finally does use his words, and says the quiet part out loud, begetting a sense awkwardness in the room, perhaps provoking countermeasures.
Short of saying the quiet part "out loud" we have saying it "between the lines".
This "between the lines" trope becomes our door to "encryption" which again partakes of parenting, as mom and dad will sometimes keep their conversation somewhat purposely opaque to junior, simply by using a less accessible vocabulary, or even a foreign language in some households. Junior, if he catches on to what's happening, may strain to decode, which is often great exercise.
In the Freudian lexicon, the ego tends to sense its own fragility in a negative way, if it's secrets come out in embarrassing ways, resulting in a sense of exposure and vulnerability.
However secrets are not by their nature all of the same subtype, in terms of the consequences of their being found out, duh.
Some might be kept out of humility, with their discovery by others resulting in a sense of pride. "You found I had the highest score."
Others might come across as wrapped gifts or buried treasures, happy surprises for the intended recipients.
Where the unknown becomes known is a complicated shoreline.
Depending on the state of one's own ego, one may be more or less receptive to different "out loud" parts, which is somewhat the point of a therapist. A patient on a voyage of self discovery cannot be expected to anticipate what all the "quiet parts" will be, and which of these will come across as blessings or as threats.
A therapist steers towards a non-threatening context, which somewhat paradoxically may mean "safe enough to surrender" for egos having growing pains, or maybe shrinking pains.
There's "letting the cat out of the bag" with regard to secrets, and then no way of "getting the toothpaste back in the tube". Both of these sayings emphasize the entropy of irreversibility.
Once the secret is out, the sense of ripple effects may avalanche. The next chapter is about coping mechanisms, dealing with what's now in the open. Sometimes we go for just shrugging it off as a first resort. Make it not matter. The ego has ways.
Here we turn to screenwriting and the job of storytelling more generally.
What drives a plot forward is often what two people are doing unbeknownst to one another, then multiplying that by even more characters behaving in mutual ignorance of the bigger picture.
The privileged viewpoint of the narrator, having hindsight, is likewise what makes a story all the more edifying.
Then, in the story, as the action unfolds, the various characters might suddenly discover one another's hitherto non-convergent trajectories. People whose paths have never crossed, cross paths.
In Quakerism, the "quiet part" (the unconscious, whether stormy or not) is the ocean of silence one strives to meet with a sense of peace.
Peace does not mean suppression and denial (a "forced peace") so much as a high level of sensitivity, meaning receptivity to nuances, to doubled meanings, to fleeting insights and intuitions.
The birdwatcher is quiet in order to hear the music of interest, not just some internal chitter chatter. A blabbery ego is less likely to hear the subtle stuff.
Note however that Quakers don't insist on remaining in that waiting state in all modes of being, or even touting that as an ideal. That spoken ministry is welcome during Meeting only hints at the wider practice, which includes worship-sharing and worship-discussion, along with whatever additional experimental forms happen to be in vogue at the time.
Social hour often immediately follows Meeting, and is a time to be optionally blabbery on purpose, having already dipped one's ladle in the silent pool and partaken of the proverbial "kool-aid" (a cult of one). Now is the time to speak in tongues (belonging to many professions), over cakes and coffee.
Our Sunday Morning Adult Discussion (SMAD) has tried many variations on the "talking stick" system. Listservs are less synchronous. I always think Quakers could be doing more using movies and television.
