Ego

[Jimmy]

Full of good things. A prosperous attitude. One of gratitude and giving, serenity and contentedness. It circles back to "flourishing and a state of being happy" in the definition above.

Grateful, absolutely

Can’t be grateful without being kind
Can’t be healthy without joy.
So post #7 covers everything in your “more purposeful life.”

Although we both forgot family and god. Hahaha Those two are big in my book.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

For me, ego is a natural occurring perception of ourselves that can be influenced by ourselves or others. There is no completely escaping it but there is detaching oneself from it, taking a step back and watching it change both positively and negatively without letting the tension of that affect who you really are.

 

[SalixIncendium]

What is the Ego?

It is the self that most perceive as 'I' that contains one's sense of self-importance and self-worth as compared with others within transactional reality.

Is it necessary?

Necessary to what? To survival or self-preservation? Probably. To gain a sense of superiority to others? Probably not.

Is it a positive or negative thing?

That depends entirely on how it is understood and managed.

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

I'm more of the thought that ego is part of the human condition, but that it should be realized for what it is and managed accordingly.

 

[SalixIncendium]

As with so much else, there are people who suffer from having too little of it; too much of it; having it malformed in some way; or even feeling guilty from having it at all.

I'm not sure there are varying amounts of ego one has, but varying degrees of ability to understand it and subservience/indifference to it.

 

[Fool]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

simply the personality as it wants to project itself to others. it can change but often doesn't like change

all the world is stage and everyone plays some part and is capable of playing most other parts too. its amorphous. can wear many hats but doesn't need a hat. it's also a false face covering. the word hypocrite comes from this idea

 

[Quintessence]

"Ego" is one of those words that works far too hard in the English language; it has several meanings that are quite distinct from one another:

• The self (as opposed to others)
  • An inherent aspect of the human condition and a necessary referent to distinguish between self and others; I'm not sure how one could see this as positive or negative given it simply is.
• Self-worth (having confidence in oneself and therefore good mental health)
  • Almost universally regarded as both positive and necessary given a poor sense of self-worth is associated with numerous mental health ailments such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc. Not something to be overcome or done away with at all.
• Egotism (excessive preoccupation with self-worth/self-importance to the point of arrogance and poor mental health)
  • Almost universally regarded as both negative and unnecessary given it leads to dysfunction in relationships and is connected with some mental health ailments such as egomania or narcissistic personality disorder. Generally something to be overcome or done away with.
• One of the three divisions of the psyche as proposed by psychoanalytic theory and bound by the reality principle
  • I'm not a Freudian - I've got no comment on this usage.

 

[Nakosis]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

Ego I see as one's sense of self worth.
Sure some folks can have an inflated ego.
However, at the other end, having little self worth doesn't seem very beneficial either.

So somewhere between a narcissist and hating myself, that's where I'll be.

 

[ChristineM]

What is the Ego?

A persons view of themselves that they want to project

Is it necessary?

Without it i wouldn't be me, so yes, i guess its necessary

Is it a positive or negative thing?

A healthy ego is positive, an inflated ego, not so much.

 

[Isabella Lecour]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

Ego is that sense of being a separate self from a collective unit, often that unit is family or it can be some affalied group, like a religion or anything that gives a sense of being a part of a collective unit. Ego is identity. Ego is the lines I draw between me and others. I find it necessary to have ego if one aspires to be an individual.

I have heard the same talk of eliminating the ego as if it was a desirable goal. I find such suspect. With everything, too much of one thing can be a bad thing, in that it is an imbalance to the rest. I find that it is very important that I have a well defined ego, a well defined sense of self before I go off and start talking to the gods. I am uninterested in being consumed by the gods. I prefer conversations.

Besides, one of the most interesting paradoxes I like to contemplate is how a collective becomes an individual and returns back to the collective in an endless cycle of rebirth and death in one's lifetime.

 

[wellwisher]

We have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. The ego is the center of the conscious mind. On the surface of the ego, is the persona or social mask of the ego. This is how you present yourself to world and to strangers. The persons contains your style, attitude, quirks, etc.. The ego can mold the persona based on will and choice and one's means.

Below the ego is the personal unconscious. This contains all your lifetime of memories and experiences, habits. It is like the hard drive of the ego connected to the learning and experiences of the ego. The ego proper, as the center of the conscious mind, is more like a private zone; I think therefore I am, that contains things that one may only share with family and close friends, as well as things only the ego may know and it may or may not wish to share.

Below the ego and the personal unconscious is what is called the shadow. This is the fuzzy interface between the personal and collective unconscious where personal and subliminal meet. The shadow is analogous to the shadow that is cast by the sun and follows the ego around. The sun in this symbolizes the inner self. The shadow often is not fully conscience to the ego, due to its depth, but is more often it is something others can see in each other, but not always in themselves. It is below the threshold of the ego and the conscious mind but can be made conscious with some practice. The weak person at time, can becomes strong since the shadow will fill in the gaps. They may not notice this but other people sense being out of place based on the ego and persona.

As we go deeper below the shadow, we enter the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is composed of genetic based jukebox of archetypes or masks of the inner self. These are natural personality firmware based on our human DNA. This instinctive nature is at the lowest level, just below the shadow. In dreams may show up as an helpful or harmful animal.

The next level of archetypes is connected to archetypes of relationships. This is rooted on human relationship, but there are also connected to how things relative to each other such as social hierarchy, an empirical view of the universe and Santa Claus with a red suit. This is how things go together often by tradition more than logic. Something like Astrology show the planet relate to time of birth helping the ego to differentiate itself by how it relative to the universe. In a male this level is call the anima and in a female it is called the animus. It has cross sexual connection. The sailor calls the ship or the sea; she, which is a historical projection of the anima. In a dream she may be a girl or princess depending who deep within the firmware you go.

The deepest level are archetypes of archetypes of meaning. Whereas the middle level if about relationships that may be based on long standing traditions and are followed collectively by each culture, archetypes of meaning is more like the universal logic and wisdom of how why things are as they are. This goes beyond the traditions of any one culture, to collective human wisdom and shared knowledge such as science.

Below that is the inner self, which is rarely seen without wearing one of the archetypes. It may appear in dreams as unity symbols; 3-D ball, gold, clear crystal, the treasure of the dragon.

The one additional feature that is sort of cultural and ego centric addendum to the archetypes, is connected to learned knowledge of good and evil. Since most will be required to learn good and evil; law, so they can go good and avoid evil, the evil is repressed causing polarization is be set up between the conscious and unconscious mind; shadow or ID, that adds an dark mask to otherwise neutral naturearchetypes. I call it the Satan Subroutine. It sort of causes the natural neural Archetype to polarize. In terms of the archetype of meaning the polarization may show up in a dream a good and evil wizard. Or it can be a helpful or scary animal.

 

[The Hammer]

We have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. The ego is the center of the conscious mind. On the surface of the ego, is the persona or social mask of the ego. This is how you present yourself to world and to strangers. The persons contains your style, attitude, quirks, etc.. The ego can mold the persona based on will and choice and one's means.

Below the ego is the personal unconscious. This contains all your lifetime of memories and experiences, habits. It is like the hard drive of the ego connected to the learning and experiences of the ego. The ego proper, as the center of the conscious mind, is more like a private zone; I think therefore I am, that contains things that one may only share with family and close friends, as well as things only the ego may know and it may or may not wish to share.

Below the ego and the personal unconscious is what is called the shadow. This is the fuzzy interface between the personal and collective unconscious where personal and subliminal meet. The shadow is analogous to the shadow that is cast by the sun and follows the ego around. The sun in this symbolizes the inner self. The shadow often is not fully conscience to the ego, due to its depth, but is more often it is something others can see in each other, but not always in themselves. It is below the threshold of the ego and the conscious mind but can be made conscious with some practice. The weak person at time, can becomes strong since the shadow will fill in the gaps. They may not notice this but other people sense being out of place based on the ego and persona.

As we go deeper below the shadow, we enter the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is composed of genetic based jukebox of archetypes or masks of the inner self. These are natural personality firmware based on our human DNA. This instinctive nature is at the lowest level, just below the shadow. In dreams may show up as an helpful or harmful animal.

The next level of archetypes is connected to archetypes of relationships. This is rooted on human relationship, but there are also connected to how things relative to each other such as social hierarchy, an empirical view of the universe and Santa Claus with a red suit. This is how things go together often by tradition more than logic. Something like Astrology show the planet relate to time of birth helping the ego to differentiate itself by how it relative to the universe. In a male this level is call the anima and in a female it is called the animus. It has cross sexual connection. The sailor calls the ship or the sea; she, which is a historical projection of the anima. In a dream she may be a girl or princess depending who deep within the firmware you go.

The deepest level are archetypes of archetypes of meaning. Whereas the middle level if about relationships that may be based on long standing traditions and are followed collectively by each culture, archetypes of meaning is more like the universal logic and wisdom of how why things are as they are. This goes beyond the traditions of any one culture, to collective human wisdom and shared knowledge such as science.

Below that is the inner self, which is rarely seen without wearing one of the archetypes. It may appear in dreams as unity symbols; 3-D ball, gold, clear crystal, the treasure of the dragon.

The one additional feature that is sort of cultural and ego centric addendum to the archetypes, is connected to learned knowledge of good and evil. Since most will be required to learn good and evil; law, so they can go good and avoid evil, the evil is repressed causing polarization is be set up between the conscious and unconscious mind; shadow or ID, that adds an dark mask to otherwise neutral naturearchetypes. I call it the Satan Subroutine. It sort of causes the natural neural Archetype to polarize. In terms of the archetype of meaning the polarization may show up in a dream a good and evil wizard. Or it can be a helpful or scary animal.

Please please please for the love of All. Learn to summarize. I'd love to read all the posts on my thread. But I'm not reading 8 paragraphs per response from a single person.

I don't have that sort of attention span.

 

[Bear Wild]

Please please please for the love of All. Learn to summarize. I'd love to read all the posts on my thread. But I'm not reading 8 paragraphs per response from a single person.

I don't have that sort of attention span.

The problem with this has to do with the words themselves as concepts. You have ego as presented by Freud who first used the term, ego as presented by his student Carl Jung, and a variation of ego to a variety of people. Freud placed it in-between the id and superego as a hierarchy. Jung placed it next to the unconscious and all connected together by a self. This gets rid of the hierarchy which is misleading in our society but now connects it to the Ideas of conscious and unconscious which can be considered as a different way of organization. Which means there is no one way to see it.

What is clear from experience, is we are aware of ourselves through the conscious state and it is in this state that we create our identity of self. This self helps then to chart the course we take throughout the day including our decisions on right and wrong. This is where or logical and rational mind operates best and where we tend to analyze in a more reductive way. What some neuroscience studies show is we may actually operate more from the unconscious that we experience. Our decisions in neurologic activity seem to start in the unconscious before they enter into the conscious which is opposite to how it feels. This is why I think Jungs was correct with his shift in terms. So in Jung we have an ego of identity within a sea of unconscious constantly influencing the ego. The unconscious is then divided into the personal - our personal experiences - and the collective which is our inherited unconscious. Some even extend the collective unconscious out beyond the body in relationship to the land. I find this an exciting idea.

 

[wellwisher]

The problem with this has to do with the words themselves as concepts. You have ego as presented by Freud who first used the term, ego as presented by his student Carl Jung, and a variation of ego to a variety of people. Freud placed it in-between the id and superego as a hierarchy. Jung placed it next to the unconscious and all connected together by a self. This gets rid of the hierarchy which is misleading in our society but now connects it to the Ideas of conscious and unconscious which can be considered as a different way of organization. Which means there is no one way to see it.

What is clear from experience, is we are aware of ourselves through the conscious state and it is in this state that we create our identity of self. This self helps then to chart the course we take throughout the day including our decisions on right and wrong. This is where or logical and rational mind operates best and where we tend to analyze in a more reductive way. What some neuroscience studies show is we may actually operate more from the unconscious that we experience. Our decisions in neurologic activity seem to start in the unconscious before they enter into the conscious which is opposite to how it feels. This is why I think Jungs was correct with his shift in terms. So in Jung we have an ego of identity within a sea of unconscious constantly influencing the ego. The unconscious is then divided into the personal - our personal experiences - and the collective which is our inherited unconscious. Some even extend the collective unconscious out beyond the body in relationship to the land. I find this an exciting idea.

I like the Jungian approach of two centers of consciousness; inner self and the ego, with the inner self here first. Freud and his idea of the superego, places the external world of culture as the primary data source that feeds the ego, through the external learning. Jung added an internal natural center; inner self that also influences the ego, from the inside, due to natural or innate firmware or archetypes. We do not have to learn human nature. That is innate via our human DNA and written to the human brain at birth.

Modern computers has allowed a way to show the connection between software, hardware and sensory devices that interface the world and collect data, to then be processed by the software; interpreted, extrapolated and acted upon. Now that we have AI, this processing can now all be done internally by a self contained system. The Freudian way was more connected to the automaton era. This was about an ego built like a machine by the external work of the super ego; drill sergeant molding a marine.This notion led to world wars; loss of inner self. The idea of software was not an option during early Psychology. It was the age of machines, with mechanical engineers building logic into machines with gears; externally applied robot tasks like a war machine.

If we add the theory of evolution, the body and brain of humans evolved over time with these evolving changes added to our DNA. Consciousness and behavior; brain software/firmware also evolved allowing each animal to consciously become aware from the inside in an autonomous way; adaptive instinct.

It makes the most sense for the human brain's operating system to be based on its naturally evolved roots, with a secondary or terminal called the ego appearing later. The ego or secondary appeared as a stand alone PC, that had access to the mainframe, which does all the heavy data crunching, so all the ego has to do is think command lines; " walk over there" and poof one is moving with coordinated movement, all processed for you. You do not need the superego to teach that, since your brain comes fully loaded with age old firmware/software.

I understood this internal and external connection and it all made sense, but knowing intellectually and having first hand experience are two different things. I decided to look inside my own brain/mind for answers through direct experiences; unconscious mind experiments on myself, to see if this was real or just a type of philosophy. In my last post, I broke down the map of the brain's operating system, since I had plenty of good first hand data from all these areas. Too many people are still in the age of the automaton; superego group think, and have yet to include internal software and even organic AI; self evolving inner self, since all good is outside you, but not also inside you, yet.

The hippie generation of the 1960's-70's was about mind altering experiences of the inner self. The organic charisma of that time was due to the inner self having a way to come out of the superego box, at least for a short time. This time is hard to recreate since it needed the inner self. The ego alone does not have what it takes. The ego is better at deconstruction; loss of inner self centric culture like religion. The hippie days was about spiritual things and alternate reality beyond just the external material world of self serving industrialists and politicians seeking to program an automaton work force; programmed linear behavior.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

What is the Ego? Is it necessary?

Is it a positive or negative thing?

I've often heard schools of thought about lessening or even doing away with one's Ego. And others that talk of bolstering it with an unbreakable sense of Self.

I assume you are not using the common definition of "ego" as arrogance. You are using the word like Freudians use it.

According to Freud, the ego operates based on the reality principle, mediating between the desires of the id (which operates on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification) and the demands of the superego (which represents internalized societal and parental standards). The ego is responsible for rational thought, problem-solving, and decision-making, striving to find realistic and socially acceptable ways to satisfy the id's desires while considering the superego's moral constraints. It is kind of the executive of the personality, balancing internal conflicts and interacting with the external world.

In the way the Freudians use the word, you can see that it is clearly necessary in order to make it through life. That would be a huge positive.

I am aware that Eastern Religions use the word ego, but they means something a little different than the above. Since I'm not really an expert in those religions, its better I do not address it. I'm sure you will receive replies from such people.

Enjoy your thread