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This article analyzes the relation to advertising and secrecy in the definition of political identities using the socialist example. This political family has often put forward its belief in a collectively developed rational politics and an ability to articulate itself clearly, without shame or mystification. From its inception, the party institution had to conserve discretion in working out its doctrine and then to accept irrational elements in its members’ attitudes. If ‘being socialist’ is both being integrated in party features (culture, tradition, life form, reflexes) and putting forward one’s difference (personality, character, etc.), this discrepancy from the ideal of reason seems even stronger since the early 1980s, as private life is interfering more and more in the public debate.