The life of writers, artists, philosophers and figures who perform public roles, or have become well-known for whatever reason, is not just the subject of erudite biographies. In our time, when the media reign supreme, the personalisation of every aspect of social, cultural and political life is everywhere. The relationship between life and work has become, in certain cases, an area that gives rise to scandals and controversies. This condition causes the work and actions of writers, artists, politicians and other public figures to be assessed through the filter of private morality. There is no dearth of recent cases that confirm this and we know the devastating effects that this can sometimes have. We need to understand that the factors that structure the public space today have generated a tendency towards the non-differentiation between the public and private, two spheres that had been separated by clear-cut borders since the Enlightenment. In the political realm, the exhibition of private life, personal gestures, idiosyncrasies and habits has become common, and sometimes obligatory, so as to satisfy tacit requirements. The people phenomenon, which used to be a territory circumscribed to gossip magazines, has expanded. And it has become commonplace to draw lines of overlap and conflict between life and work.