I find it interesting that as we awaken to our real selves and understand who we really are in this lifetime, we are told that in order to stay on a “righteous and spiritual” path we must lose our ego.
Lose our ego? What is the ego but our very own personality.
Yes, it’s true some of us have bigger personalities than others but does that mean their ego is disproportionately large?
Our ego is our personality. If one is a selfish person, that doesn’t care for others, and is unkind then that’s their personality. Nobody wants to be around a person like that for sure. That person might want to make some changes in their strong personality.
I do not believe, as I read all over the Internet by “experts in the field”, that my ego is toxic or that it’s something I must lose. I chose this perceived physical lifetime to be in human form and without an ego I would not be human at all.
June 12, 2021 @ 8:39 pm
There’s sooooo much that can be written about this one topic. Our language is such an imperfect tool for all of us especially when we do what all human beings do which is to define our world in a way that we can communicate our discoveries intelligently to other devoid of any bias.
It’s unfortunate that the term “Ego” has had many examples of abuse in our culture. Despite that, I would have to say that I have said several times how much I wish I knew how shove my ego in the closet and lock the door.
Does that mean I believe the “Ego” should be killed? Nope. Does that mean there’s a lot we don’t know the components of our consciousness, our soul, happens to be? Yep.
There isn’t any so-called expert that has ever lived that can prove to a scientific certainty anything that is at the core of this subject. All we can do is guess, develop some beliefs on th subject, and live our lives based on those beliefs.
I’m all for that provided that anyone with whom I am interacting with is willing to accept that others may have a different “take” on the subject and is willing to accept that difference while discussing the topic with an open mind.
How important is that? Well, since our beliefs are based on psychological filters and life experiences, imagine interacting with someone who has experienced a mind-blowing event in their life that just isn’t common….something like a person viciously murdering someone they loved.
How would that person interpret “Ego” at then? I could understand and respect the idea that maybe their interpretation of “Ego” just might be a bit different. And, if they would be willing to spend time talking about it, sharing their experience, I might just learn something I might not have known otherwise.
It’s unfortunate, but this topic falls into the category, in my opinion, as soft-science. What does that mean? It means that there is no reasonable way an expert can conduct experiments in a way that objectively proves/defines the subject…to wit: what composes the human ego.
My hope in all of this is that more people will want to talk openly and honestly about it without passing judgement. We need to discover as much as we can so we at least have a chance to understand more about what makes up our core.
Hopefully, all of that makes sense.
June 13, 2021 @ 9:28 am
I understand what you are saying and I agree that the word ego is misunderstood. I believe our personality is made up of several components and they work together, lose one and you are not going to be mentally the same. The ego is vital to all the parts of our personality and it makes us human. I am always surprised at how many articles there are telling us to lose our ego, when we would not be human without it. Here is are a small sample of titles I got off Google about the ego.
Free Yourself From Your Ego in-3 Easy Steps
How to Drop Your Ego With 5 Techniques
25 Ways To Kill The Toxic Ego That Will Ruin Your Life
Lose Your Ego Gain the World
The Toxic Ego
3 Signs Your Ego is Trying to Kill You … and What To Do …
How to Kill the Toxic Ego That Will Ruin Your Life | Hacker News
If someone kills another person though – that is a mental illness. I couldn’t possibly say that if someone murdered another person they have a large ego, I would say they are mentally ill and their ID (part of the personality) is very distorted.
“There isn’t any so-called expert that has ever lived that can prove to a scientific certainty anything that is at the core of this subject. All we can do is guess, develop some beliefs on th subject, and live our lives based on those beliefs.”
I believe Sigmund Freud did explain the importance of the ego and defined it. He said, “The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.
The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable.
The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.”
(Freud, 1923, p. 25)
Freud explains the ID – “The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex (life) instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and the aggressive (death) instinct.
The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id and only later does it develop an ego and super-ego.
The id remains infantile in its function throughout a person’s life and does not change with time or experience, as it is not in touch with the external world. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious part of the mind.”
Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is “like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse.” (Freud, 1923, p. 15)
I agree with Freud, The ego is an extremely important part of what makes up our personality and our personality makes us human. If someone needs to make changes to themselves they must work on ALL components of the personality.
The ego usually always gets blamed for anything a person does that someone else doesn’t like and my attempt was to clarify that our ego is a very important part of our personality. It’s what makes us human.
Thank you for your comment Keith, I don’t disagree with you but just wanted to add that I think that without an ego humans would be zombies.