Ego
The word Ego is used to refer to the the integrated combination of self-consciousness (I), perspective (eye) (individual view/understanding of the world) and will [1] that leads to the emergence/experience of Self/self. Ego is the conscious experience of self (Sharp, SA1).
Notes
Thus, the primary contents of ego.
Ego = Self-consciousness + Perspective + Will
or
Ego = I + Eye + Will
Human beings struggle to integrate two egos, a Spiritual Ego and a Bodily Ego. Spiritual ego emerges as the result of an Intensification of Consciousness. At the point where Consciousness becomes self aware (i.e. aware of it's independent existence and perspective), "speaks" the words I AM, an ego (a.k.a. Monad) is born (Sharp, BOLVI). Bodily ego emerges as the result of the operation of what scientists call the Default Mode Network (Sosteric, SA1).
The primary task of human development is the development of a healthy and strong Bodily Ego that is capable of "handling" a full measure of spiritual ego.
Toxic Socialization undermines the bodily ego and makes it incapable of containing a full measure of spiritual ego.
When the bodily ego functions to limit consciousness (ref), the bodily ego may be said to be in an unhealthy, defensive, and pathological state. See Ego Pathology
Psychological treatment of an unhealthy bodily ego involves repair of psychological emotional damage and reintegration of spiritual ego with bodily ego.
Most people, Kai Vogeley et al. (1999) is an example, overlook self-efficacy/power/will in their conceptualization of identity/ego. Vogely et al. (1999):
- the consciousness of one’s own mental states, such as perceptions, attitudes, opinions, and intentions to act.
- ability to take a self- or first-person perspective (1PP)
- sense of transtemporal unity (Vogely, Kurthen, Falkai, & Maier, 1999: direct quote).
Ego did not always exist. Before the Fabric of Consciousness intensified into the monadic spark of god, there was no ego, there was simply the blissful, but unaware, Fabric of Consciousness. However, at the point of the intensification, when god is born in The Fabric, so too is the first ego (i.e. I + eye + will) brought into existence.
This original monadic spark, and all subsequent intensifications in the Fabric of Consciousness may be referred to as Spiritual Ego
Most conceptualizations of ego do not distinguish properly between Bodily Ego and Spiritual Ego and are consequently primitive, unserviceable, limiting, and ultimately confusing. For example, Edward Carpenter struggles to understand the emergence of ego, while amorphously flopping back and forth between a confused understanding of Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego. Carpenter does correctly note however that the experience of perspective, conceived of as the experience of "separation," is a motivating force behind the instantiation of ego. "And so we find the first form in which the self fairly comes to consciousness is that of separation."[2]
Additional Reading
Vogeley, K., May, M., Ritzl, A., Falkai, P., Zilles, K., & Fink, G. R. (2004). Neural Correlates of First-Person Perspective as One Constituent of Human Self-Consciousness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(5), 817-827. doi: 10.1162/089892904970799
Vogeley, K., Kurthen, M., Falkai, P., & Maier, W. (1999). Essential Functions of the Human Self Model Are Implemented in the Prefrontal Cortex. Consciousness and Cognition, 8(3), 343-363. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ccog.1999.0394
