After reading the various essay in Ego (Anon, 29-57), I came to realize that there are some illusions that humans find themselves in, believing that they are real but they are just illusionary. I also realized that self identity is not as obvious as it seems. Rather, the real person is often overshadowed by the current state of the mind, also known as the ego, which tends to define an individual based on the past experiences. It also seeks immediate gratification of the body, thereby manipulating the circumstances so as to get the desired effect. The paragraphs below take an insight into the ego.
The first instinct of any human being is the personal identity. This is what is commonly referred to as I it is accompanied by the possessive forms such as me, myself, and mine. All these are in an attempt to give the individual an identity (Anon., 30). This is also the case when a young child learns about identity. The child tends to associate its name with itself, but as a third person. By and by, the ego concept sets in and the child starts using the ‘I’ concept. So, in real sense, the ‘I’ is not what defines an individual. It is just an illusion of who an individual is.
The real person can be seen if an effort is made to look deeper into the mind of the individual. In this case, an individual engages in an inward analysis of self. It is through such an effort that the power within an individual can be realized. The individual can realize the real self after denying the selfish instincts brought about by the ego. The selfishness of the ego is associated with ownership or possession of property. For instance, an individual feels attached to a given asset such that it is inseparable from the individual. This possessiveness is a major characteristic of the ego. It seeks self gratification.
The passage that interested me the most was the one on voices in the head (Anon, 30). Through this passage, the issue of the ego comes up quite strongly. In the passage, the author feels curious about a woman who seems so lost in thought that she is oblivious of other happenings around. On investigation, he follows her closely only to realize that she goes to the same place as he, and is quite conscious of what she is doing. While pondering about her, he finds himself thinking loudly that he would rather not be like her. Ironically, he is just like her because as he thinks aloud, other people in his vicinity are surprised that he seems to be talking to himself.
This is a good illustration of the ego. It tends to make the individual believe that he is better off than anyone else, and that bad things can only happen to others but not to him. This is a wrong perception of the self. The ego twists things around so as to satisfy the mind and make the individual feel good to be living. However, there is more joy and more life that can be realized from the knowledge of who an individual really is. This calls for the breaking of the barriers of ego, and looking at the inner self. The inner being is the real individual. It calls for a deliberate effort to unearth the individual beneath the ego.
Work Cited
Anonymous. Ego: The Current State of Humanity. N.d. (Word Document)
