Illustrating the Global Ego

In a previous post, I suggested that one of the most fundamental misunderstandings we humans labor under is that an ego is a part of ourselves.  In psychoanalysis, for example, the ego is the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.  We think it's a part of who we are.

Instead, I think it’s more helpful to think of the ego as a construct, a conceptual entity each of us created in order to get along in life. It’s essentially a story about ourselves as individuals.  And it serves interests that are not ours.