About the Ego

For Criminy's sake, man, why do you have a third "About" page?

Well, you see, I have to clarify something.

If you've read the About This Site page and the About Faltarego page, you'll have noticed that I talk a lot about the ego. Heck, my alias/domain name even ends with the word.

Problem is, the word ego doesn't mean what we all think it means. Culturally, we've all come to accept it as the word for the selfish, me-centered portion of our psyches that just wants everything for itself and never mind about everyone else.

Well, that's not really the ego. It's actually the id.

According to Sigmund Freud, who defined the "structural model" of the psyche, the id, the ego, and the superego are the three components of the "psychic apparatus."

The Wikipedia article on the subject describes the id as follows:

"The Id comprises the unorganised part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives. The id acts according to the pleasure principle: if not compelled by reality it seeks immediate enjoyment. It is focused on selfishness and instant self-gratification. Personality, as Freud saw it, was produced by the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints that were internalised."

The same article describes the ego thusly:

"The Ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief. The Ego comprises that organised part of the personality structure which includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. The ego separates what is real. It helps us to organise our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us."

Finally, the article says this about the superego:

"The Super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organised part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called 'conscience') that criticises and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. The Super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The Super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The Super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways."

Thank you, Wikipedia. (Don't leave home without it.)

So what?

So… it looks to me like it's the id that causes all the trouble, not the ego. When large groups of celebrities get together to record a song for a good cause (like "We Are the World" or "Tears are Not Enough"), they should really post signs on the studio door that read "Please check your ids at the door" rather than "Please check your egos at the door."

But our cultural bias towards using the word ego remains, and a little rant like this one is not going to change anything. I imagine it's because the word is taken directly from the Latin for "I myself" that it has become so strongly associated with self-centeredness.

Language and word origins are another huge interest of mine, and so I felt I just had to put this information out there, especially since the word ego plays such a pivotal role in my creation of this site.

Now, it's entirely possible that some folks will disagree with my interpretation of the information in the article from which I've quoted above. If so, I'd like to hear it. I'm going to enable comments for this page for just that purpose. Its unusual to see comments enabled for an "About" page, but in this case, I think it's warranted.

If you have an opinion about what I've written here, please add it below.

Thanks for reading.