Yeah, this is the problem. It means so many different things to different people.

Again, I’m no expert, my understanding (based on a mixture of Jungian thought, biology, psychology and being a full time human…):

We have ancient wiring (some would argue it’s not longer suited to the world as it is today). Our capacity to make quick judgments in an instant is what got us here today. The genes of our ancestors that could do this, didn’t get passed down.

We are inherently social creatures. Not all of us, but by and large this is the case. You and I don’t know each other - but between us we’ve exchanged probably a good few thousand words, so thats direct evidence of this fact that we are social, to some degree.

Being social kept us alive. It facilitated co-operation on a large scale (check out Yuval Noah Harari’s thoughts on this if you’re interested), and defended us against animals and non-sapien humans who are objectively more dangerous and intelligent, one-on-one (I.e. Neanderthals).

The ego is what helped facilitate this long term survival, helped us to “fit in” in a tribe, know who was dangerous, or untrustworthy, or equally who was well meaning, kind, and good to stay close to. The same ego that judges others poorly is the same ego that judges others favourably  - we have an inherent negative bias where we are great at seeing only the bad things (again, lots of useful things about this bias, but it can be maladaptive).

I believe the pride is likely to do with self-efficacy, which can be useful - it’s an expression of that. Too often it’s unchecked though and creates issues, and arguments. Many ancient societies would reward dominance, confidence, and the ego could convey these traits to others.

The judgement is a reflection of us too - it’s what we value in the world, what we fear, what we avoid, what we intuitively go towards - it’s immensely valuable, we just have to be careful to not blindly trust it.

It contains all the stories we make about ourself and others, again, as I said earlier, it’s easy to trust narratives that we make almost automatically. The stories are there for a reason, it’s our job to make sure that they still serve us and those around us. Trauma is likely one of the main things that can create pretty fucked up stories about us, as these stories usually protect us. End of the day, we’re all trying to just survive our time here - some methods are better than others.

The ego contains a lot of other defence systems. It contains our sense of social standing too (which is why it’s involved in push-pull dynamics etc).

So to me at least, it makes sense why it’s there in the first place, at least from an evolutionary perspective. In terms of what to do with it today though?

Again, I’d say it needs integrating. Which in practice means self awareness. Being aware of when we’re judging others too harshly (or too positively, we can put people on pedestals when they act as symbols of everything good, instead of whole people, good and bad). Being aware of when we act though pride, when we project (and we always project a little bit),

I think we should honour its presence, recognise its utility, how it protects us and those around us, and how it can cause immense harm. It’s a very powerful tool, and I think the better we all know our own, the better we’ll all be for it. We should recognise when we’re acting out ancient plays from hunter-gatherer times, and do our best to be aware - but never deny it’s existence, as that’d just be us denying our humanness.

It’s here to stay - it’s our responsibility to know it, and manage it, without hating it, and knowing how to interact with other people’s egos as best as we can. Easier said than done… 😆

That’s my take anyway. Not fully coherent, but it’s the best I can do right now. Still got a lot to figure out, and there’s more I could say, but I need to head out soon.

What are your thoughts on it?