The Self, the Ego, the “I”, the Identity

In my first post I discussed the conflict of society versus self. I began and ended with balance. I would emphasize this once more. The engine of society is balanced in the understanding of self. I hinted at my personal dislike for egoism, though self-care or discipline, self-awareness, and self-reliance are very important for mental health. One must learn to think for oneself through critical and analytical processes.

Think for yourself, question authority. “Throughout human history, our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are or where we are going in this ocean of chaos. It has been the authorities: the political, the religious, the education authorities who attempt to comfort us, by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing. Forming in our minds, their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability, to inform yourself.” (Leary, How to Operate Your Brain)

Freud compartmentalized “the self” into three categories: ego, superego, and the Id. Mead’s I, me and the generalized other use a similar structure of separating the conscious with that of the subconscious. Cooley summarized self-reflection through the looking-glass self, a model of interpreting the self based on perceived societal demands and judgments. While each of these ideologies carry a different measure of validity, using them all as reflective views of oneself is a better template than using just one.

Ego is the base of reason.   As I had discussed last week, connotation is a very powerful thing. To the point, that it forms false meanings and emotions for particular words, ego being of the top of this list. Ego is most often perceived as confidence or more often, overconfidence to the point of arrogance. Of course, the ego could be displayed in overconfidence, though it could also be displayed through insecurity as well.  When encountering each situation one will reason with one’s ego.

Ego is your self-image. Ego reflects how you perceive yourself.  How we encounter the world around us contributes to this self image. On my home page I express the belief that everything that we see, smell, taste, and feel is our perceptive view of the bias.  That our perception denotes our truth.  That our ego dictates our right and wrong, while our superego is the supervision of that right and wrong in action subconsciously, allowing the animalistic nature of the Id to play.

Mead’s model separates self using I, me, and the generalized other. The I is our subconscious in action, while the me is our reflection of ones actions and thoughts, compounding on the generalized other which reflects our thought process of how we think others see us. The me is ever chasing the I in reflection of the generalized other.   The similarities with Freud indicate a level of conscious and subconscious activity.

Cooley’s looking-glass self reflects how we perceive societal influence, judgement, and demand.  Since this permeates through our minds, it represents our view of life.

Together these all contribute to the creation of “the self”. Through these constructs, a situationally activated identity will be presented as stated in Society vs Self.

Identities are the most complex structure of the self. These portray how we project the self in a given situation.   Through the subconscious actions of the Id and the I, instincts flow into identity, though when adding the conscious elements of ego and me, one’s identity shifts due to self-awareness of the situation around us. All the while, the generalized other paired with the looking-glass self, adapt that conscious based on what one’s social atmosphere demands, emerging an identity with constraints of how the superego will limit our production of “the self”.

The final structure of self that I would like to discuss encompasses the balancing of egoism and altruism. Considering the difficulty of the whole functioning without the one, just as the difficulties of the one functioning without the whole, depicts a bell curve with the highest point of success in the middle. Balance

Humility and humbleness are the signs of great people