To: K-list
Recieved: 2002/09/24 10:20
Subject: [K-list] Re: Ego
From: Stephen Kowalchuk
On 2002/09/24 10:20, Stephen Kowalchuk posted thus to the K-list:
In the interest of moving the ego thread along, let's look at some definitions
of ego:
From webster (http://www.m-w.com):
--
Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, I -- more at I
Date: 1789
1 : the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world
2 a : EGOTISM 2 b : SELF-ESTEEM 1
3 : the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory
that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person
and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and
adaptation to reality -- compare ID, SUPEREGO
--
From "An Introduction to Jung" (http://www.mageist.net/jungintro.html):
--
In the Freudian conceptualization, ego refers to a psychic structure which
mediates between society (superego) and instinctual drives (id). Jung's usage is
in contrast to this. For Jung the ego can be understood in a much more dynamic,
relative, (and fragile) way as a complex, a feeling-toned group of
representations of oneself that has both conscious and unconscious aspects and
is at the same time personal and collective. Simply put, too simply perhaps, the
ego is how one sees oneself, along with the conscious and unconscious feelings
that accompany that view (Hopcke, 1989, p. 77).
The ego, as one complex (see below) among many, is not seen by Jungians as the
goal of psychological development. As the carrier of the individual's
consciousness, it is the task of the ego to become aware of its own limitations,
to see its existence as only a small island -- though an essential one -- in the
much greater ocean of the personal and collective unconscious.
A major part of the ego's task -- and a major goal of psychotherapy -- is to
develop an appropriate relationship with what Jung termed the Self, the
archetype of wholeness. The Self can be understood as the central organizing
principle of the psyche, that fundamental and essential aspect of human
personality which gives cohesion, meaning, direction, and purpose to the whole
psyche.
--
Bear with me, it gets better. From "Kundalini Yoga", by Sri Swami Sivananda:
--
When meditation becomes intensified, in the ocean of Existence or rather the
individuality [sic] is blotted or blown out completely. Just as a drop of water
let on a frying pan is immediately sucked and vanishes from cognition, the
individual consciousness is sucked by the Universal Consciousness and is
absorbed in it. According to Vedanta, there cannot be real liberation in a
state of multiplicity, and the state of complete Oneness is the goal to be
aspired for, towards which alone the entire creation is slowly moving on.
-- From the section on "Kundalini and Vedanta", pp. xv-xvi.
Q.E.D.
--
---------
Stephen Kowalchuk
spkATnospamkowalchuk.org
Truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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