Where does ego end and you begin?
Ego is defined as, (according to dictionary.com) the "I" of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.
So I would think in that case ego is necessary, without an ego with have no individual self.
It is also defined as, the part of the psychic apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the social and physical environment.
Okay obviously that is a bit more complicate. I began writing this because despite my best efforts I am constantly battling what I am told is my "ego". I mean with any digging at all we are told ego is the enemy. Heck there is even a popular book with that as the title. But is it? The definition above states it is the apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between the "primitive" drivers of the id. Can the ego not do that effectively, correctly?
And of course I had to look up id... the part of the psyche, residing in the unconscious, that is the source of the instinctive impulses that seek satisfaction in accordance with the pleasure principle and are modified by the ego and the superego before they are given overt expression.
Okay this is turning into a research rabbit hole... superego?... the part of the personality representing the conscience, formed in early life by internalizing of the standards of parents and other models of behavior. I suddenly hear the robot from "Lost in Space" in my head. "Danger Will Robinson, Danger" Let us stop digging there.
It is weird I have learn what my ego feels like, of course now I am wondering if that is more correctly stated as I have learned what it feels like when my ego malfunctions. It is a buzzing my chest, an anxious feeling. I have learn when I feel that feeling to try and shut down "I" feelings. I have learned to hold on to those feelings causes more and more conflict. I thought I was try to let go of, shut down my ego.
But should I, should you? How do you abandon all attempts to preserve your place in the fight? Is the trick to not be in the fight? But doesn't all good change come from effective conflict? Maybe the trick is to defend your place without being upset? Admittedly something I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around.
When I began writing this I thought perhaps by the time I got to the end I might have figure a little something out. I have not. Maybe this is just an open thought to the universe. An open question to anyone that might read? Maybe it is a seed planted somewhere in my mind? Perhaps in the ego? Or what if it is a seed planted in my Id by the ego... Whoa... "Danger Will Robinson, Danger"... We will let it go there.
I do know this to be true. I heard it best said by someone else, I think Covey, "Between what happens to us and how we react is a life changing space."