What is the Ego?
- Nina
- Apr 22, 2017
- 3 min read
There is a term that is prevalent in the Spiritual and Personal Growth community. That term is “Ego”. The mainstream idea of what “Ego” is relates to someone being arrogant or selfish. “That guy has a huge Ego.” But there is so much more to this term. It isn’t something that only arrogant people possess – we all have it, and it is vital to our survival as mammals on this Earth. It is important to understand what it really is and how it affects our daily lives.
Sigmund Freud described the Ego as part of the tripartite structure of the psyche – the Id, the Ego and the Superego. Freud described the Id as the basis of our instinctual drives and needs, the Ego as the mediator between our internal and external worlds, and the Superego as the internalization of our conscious mind.
The definition and understanding of the Ego has evolved over time, and now takes on a new meaning unrelated to the concepts spelled out by Freud. What I’m writing about today is my current understanding of the Ego, and the one that I’ve heard described from brilliant thinkers such as Joseph Campbell, Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, Mastin Kipp and many others.
The Ego, simply put, is what we falsely identify with. It is pretty much Identity itself.
The Ego isn’t bad in and of itself. It has a very important purpose: to protect you. If we all went about our lives without any sense of “I” or “Self”, and didn’t care about what happened to us, we would not survive long as a species. The Ego is an important tool that helps us attain resources, relationships, jobs, etc. It compels us to feed and care for ourselves. It helps us to defend ourselves when we are being physically or verbally attacked. It allows us to take part in a community, and to choose a role that benefits the group as well as ourselves. These are some of the important roles of the Ego.
When running the show, the Ego overshadows the needs, desires and insight from our humanity, intuition and empathy. Logic and certainty overpower compassion. It dehumanizes and objectifies. It holds in place an unshakable perspective that requires it to be right, at all costs. This is what happens when people refuse to see anyone else’s point of view except their own. Their Ego is too strong and is taking control. They are right, and everyone else is wrong. They are disconnected from others. They use judgment of others to protect their fragile Ego framework of the world. They may claim the System is against them, or they may use the System to shame, judge and control others. Either way, it becomes an unwavering identity and reality through which all experiences are filtered.
This can also show up in more innocent forms, but it is always tied to identity. We may identify with a job or a role, and when it is taken from us, we feel lost. A mother loses her child, and doesn’t know who she is anymore outside of her role as a mother. A dancer permanently loses function of her legs, and doesn’t know how to go on without her identity as a dancer. A CEO gets removed from a company, and she doesn’t know what that makes her and doubts her self-worth. Many have turned these and similar situations to their advantage and have become an inspiration to us all, and that is because we intuitively understand that there is a huge Ego struggle when dealing with situations like these. Not everyone recovers gracefully when their Ego has been attacked.
As with anything in life, there has to be balance. We’ve seen that the Ego is important to our survival, but it cannot be allowed to overpower our humanity. Life without intuition, passion and connection is rather bleak and robotic, and can even be cruel. We must know that at the end of the day, there is no “I” – we are all connected and we are all the same. However, we have been given this one life and this one body. We must protect it, nourish it and fulfill the destiny that has been seeded within it. We must embark on the journey to learn our own personal balance between Ego and Soul. It may look different for each person. Aspects of it may be easier for one than another. But if we listen deep within ourselves, we can always feel and know when we are on track and when we need to course correct and give our Ego a respite from the helm.
