Defining Ego: From Psychoanalysis to Neuroscience
Most of the time when we use the word “ego”, it’s in a negative context whilst describing somebody obnoxious. Furthermore, it’s something we believe is tangible. However, in both instances, our definitions are incorrect.
Freud’s Ego
To explain why that is so, we need to revisit an old friend of Becoming Polymathic — Sigmund Freud. Freud is the father of psychoanalysis and first introduced the concepts of the ego, ID, and superego in his 1920 essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. He further elaborated on these concepts in the more notable The Ego and the ID essay in 1923. At a rudimentary level, the ego is the part of our psyche which balances the demands of the ID, physical reality, and the superego.
To define the ego in greater depth, it acts as the regulator between the impulsive, primitive desires of the ID, the altruistic, moralistic laws provided by the superego, and the nature of our surrounding social environment. As a result, it plays an important role in assimilation.
When we are young, our ID governs our actions. As we develop, our parents and other influential figures instill morals and values, which become the foundation of our superego. With these two entities now established, we are forced to wrestle with fulfilling their respective desires in a socially acceptable manner, a triage that will continue throughout our lives.
Jung’s Ego
Although I believe Freud’s notion of the ego being regulatory is correct, I believe there is a superior definition. For that definition, we need to pay a visit to another old friend — Carl Jung. We’ve examined Jung’s concept of the Shadow in a previous Becoming Polymathic piece. There, we assimilated the relationship of our personality and our Shadow with the relationship between our ego and our ID. Notice the absence of the superego…
The superego’s absence is intentional. While researching this piece, it became apparent the superego’s definition did not align with my understanding of a binary psyche similar to that of Jung’s.
By definition the superego, despite its pious nature, is connected to our ID. That means it can be leveraged to fulfill our primitive, sometimes sadistic desires. In that sense, the superego is a ring road that can be leveraged by our ID to circumnavigate the ego. For that reason, I believe Jung’s binary definition of our psyche is superior to Freud’s triangular definition.
With that foundational understanding, I believe we can better define our ego as the person we elect to show the world. This definition also aligns with the colloquial usage of the term and enlightens us to how we can leverage our ego to progress the journey of being more.
A New Understanding of Ego
Before we begin to apply this new understanding, it’s imperative we take a step back and agree on an important idea — we are most fulfilled when our actions and thoughts align with our true selves. It’s important to agree on this idea because we must first assimilate the process of leveraging our ego to that of integrating our Shadow into our personality.
The Process of Ego Development
This process begins with understanding where higher order thinking occurs in the brain. It occurs in the prefrontal cortex, whose other functions include judgement and planning. If Freud’s ego were to be located somewhere in the brain, it would be here.
With that visual in mind, the next step is to open up this area to the more uncomfortable desires which reside in our Shadow. That doesn’t mean acting on them, it means avoiding repressing them. The more we allow these uncomfortable thoughts into the decision-making area of the brain, the more confident we will be that our actions align with our truest self.
By consistently engaging in this process, we expose the positive elements of our Shadow to the external world. Eventually, the feedback we receive from this exposure will lead to permanent change in our psyche. Though not extinguished, we no longer yearn to act on our Shadow’s primal desires and can direct that energy towards more productive endeavors.
The Challenge of the Information Age
We underestimate how much energy it takes to exist within our information-saturated society. Freud would argue these circumstances have led to overinflation of the ID and superego. Jung and I would argue our personality is struggling to integrate our Shadow in a healthy manner. Regardless of which side you agree with, it’s clear unnatural amounts of information are affecting our ego’s development.
To successfully develop our ego, the first thing we must do is selectively isolate ourselves from this onslaught of information. We don’t want to become outsiders, but we also don’t want to waste energy on unproductive endeavors. Socially, we need a community to fulfill our needs as social creatures, but we also need to remove ourselves from that community to develop independence of thought. Additionally, if that community no longer aligns with our ego, then we must leave it and establish a new one.
The development of our ego, and consequentially our persona, is an unavoidable step on the journey of being more. The most important thing we can do is allow it space to develop. Again, like many things we discuss in Becoming Polymathic, there is no rulebook defining the parameters for efficient ego development. All we can do is experiment, reflect, and react.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” — Carl Jung
