Ego.

You probably pictured someone you know or maybe yourself.

Larger than life personalities.

Some call it arrogance, some call it confidence.

Kanye West, the poster child of ego, literally has a song titled Ego.

What is it?

There are many interpretations of ego. Let’s break down some.

Freud

Sigmund Freud, known for his work in psychoanalysis and personalities, defines ego as:

What makes sense of our thoughts and the world around us. It is the component of our personality we are aware of the most.

How we project our understanding of the world is how our ego interprets it.

Information and stimuli (emotions, smells, neurotransmitters) come in. Our ego creates an interpretation, then we interact with the world with that interpretation.

This explains how ego works.

“Interpretations” can be explained as valuation and potential.

Valuation

Putting high value on personal beliefs because it comes from oneself.

This ego values self higher than anything else.

Understanding and personal experience is required for this ego to accept it.

New ideas from other sources go through an internal debate against this ego’s views understanding with a bias towards self.

Potential

Confidence in one’s potential, not current state.

This ego values some ideal future and interprets based on that image.

People and experiences have to be aligned with the vison for this ego to accept it.

New ideas are compared to the vision. Ideas not aligned will be disregarded or held at a small value.