The ego implies the recognition of the self.
The ego is, for psychology , the psychic instance through which the individual recognizes himself as self and is aware of his own identity. The ego, therefore, is the reference point of physical phenomena and mediates between the reality of the external world, the ideals of the superego and the instincts of the id.
For Freudian psychoanalysis the id ( id ) is composed of desires and impulses. The superego ( superego ), on the other hand, is formed by the morals and rules that a subject respects in society . The self ( ego ), finally, is the balance that allows man to satisfy his needs within social parameters.
Although some currents reject this division of the mind into three differentiated people, for Sigmund Freud the human personality is composed of both conscious elements and unconscious impulses.
How the ego works
The ego, which evolves with age , tries to fulfill the desires of the id in a realistic way and reconcile them with the demands of the superego. The self, therefore, changes with the passage of time and according to the external world.
Freud believes that the ego transcends the sense of self to become a system of psychic functions of defense, intellectual functioning, synthesis of information and memory, among others. The self is the first step of self-recognition to experience joy, punishment or guilt.
Another of the many authors who have worked and studied about the self and the ego is the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who came to establish that, from his point of view, it was an alienation for the human being himself. And the individual sees himself at all times in his ego, without forgetting that the formation of the ego occurs at first within what would be a triangle formed by his mother, the individual himself and the object a.
It is common for excess self-esteem to be called ego.
Excess self-esteem
In colloquial language, finally, the ego is often referred to as excess self-esteem . For example: “This actor has so much ego that, at some point, he is going to hit a wall.”
In addition to all the above, we cannot ignore the fact that there are two widely used words in our language that are precisely based on the word ego. On the one hand, we find the term egomaniac, which comes from Greek, and which defines that person who practices egomania, that is, who has an exaggerated love of himself.
On the other hand, there is the word selfish which, in the same way, is an adjective that is used to refer to any individual who not only has an excessive love for his own person but also this makes him be aware at all times. of his own interest without taking into account that of the other people around him.
Likewise, it must also be emphasized that ego is the name given to an important area of the world of fashion. Specifically, we can establish that EGO is a platform for young talents that is developed every two years within the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid.