The Ego

According to Freud, the ego is “the representative of the outer world to the id.”[1] The ego, according to Freud, is concerned with the reality principle (as opposed to the pleasure principle) and is oriented toward perceptions in the real world. My dictionary defines ego as 1) the self; the individual as aware of himself; 2) egotism, conceit.

Popularly, the ego is regarded as something immutable; that aspect of our psyche that becomes prideful or arrogant, seemingly beyond our conscious control, and which defends Self from the attacks of others, or justifies behavior.

None of these definitions help us to transcend what we might consider the inappropriate qualities of the ego, nor do they really define something we can work with. If you want to solve a problem, you have to first define the problem! But no one can really say for sure what the ego is.

First off, let us say that the ego, the id, the subconscious, or any other named component of the mind are just identifiers that really don’t represent anything. Medicine, psychology, and psychiatry all believe that consciousness (and the mind) originate in the brain. Orthodox medicine and therapy, therefore, are always searching for something in the brain to identify as the source of what it conceives of as the various physical substructures of consciousness.

Regardless of your definition of consciousness, or the mind, if the ego is not a made-up psychic compartment, if it really exists, then what is it? How do we overcome it, or integrate it holistically into our consciousness?

In the vibrational universe concept, ego is just the collection of activated beliefs around any subject. A belief is a fixed way of thinking about something, such as, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” Underlying any belief, however, is a state of being. A state of being creates a tendency to think or believe in a certain way. It is a sort of psychic container for thoughts and beliefs. The point is that a state of being, and the beliefs that are generated from it, is something that you can consciously deal with!

In other words, to change the ego, change your state of being.

What is a state of being? It is your conception of self on any subject or area of life, and is phrased in an “I AM” statement. The egotist who believes that he can do anything better than you might have a state of being like, “I am superior.” A state of being is so powerful it allows a person to defend beliefs that are obviously false. This is what passes for the ego, in my opinion.

This state of being allows a person to believe “I can do anything better than you,” despite all evidence to the contrary. I knew a fellow like this in high school, who believed he was the best baseball player on the team, even though he couldn’t hit, field, or run fast. This kind of behavior gives the appearance of an ego, when it is really just a state of being supporting a belief that is obviously false. When this guy was challenged by other members of the team, who pointed out numerous times where he made mistakes, this fellow always angrily defended himself.

This phenomenon is what has been called the ego defense mechanism. There’s a guy on a sports blog I read at the Detroit News, who constantly defends Al Avila, the former GM of the Detroit Tigers, who had losing records in every season he was GM except the first, made bad trades, and drafted poorly. When people point out the mistakes Avila made, this guy responds egotistically and often with personal attacks. Everyone can see how absurd this guy is, except himself.

Ego can be positive or negative, depending on your state of being. Successful people are often regarded as egotistical, and undoubtedly some of them are, but when you are successful, you have a very strong desire and a very positive conception of self, because you are aligned with success. Lots of people said that Mother Theresa was egotistical. But Mother Theresa did a whole lot of good in the world. A strong and positive conception of self leads to a powerful intention to get things done. And that rubs some people the wrong way.

If ego is just the activated set of beliefs you have about yourself, based upon the state of being you have chosen, then you can change that by making new “I AM” statements that support a different way of thinking. This definition of ego provides something to work with in therapy and avoids artificial compartmentalization of the mind.

The ego, far from being an immutable compartment of your psyche, is something entirely self created.

Summary

The id, the ego, the subconscious mind, etc., all are made-up, artificial divisions of the human psyche. What passes for “ego” is an I AM, a state of being, that supports either positive or negative beliefs.

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[1] Ego and the Id, p 708

[2] The way I got out of the situation was to use a directed meditation that allowed me to create a new state of being.

[3] Theres a good reason for that, which we cant get into now.

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