ego
This aspect of Sol niger can show itself when consciousness becomes unconsciously critical. Alchemically, the heat is turned up too high, and the ego's skin is burnt, blackened, or tortured with stinging criticism, producing shame and threatening bodily integrity. Hillman describes a similar process of mortification-when the ego feels trapped or
... See moreDr. Stanton Marlan • The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology Book 10)
We use the term “ego” to signify the inauthentic “I” or self (with a small “s”) that develops to survive in difficult environments and to become acceptable to the conventional world. We view ego as the result of many inevitable adaptations to forces that cannot tolerate the authentic expressions of the Self—helplessness in a small boy develops into
... See moreSteven Wolf • Romancing the Shadow
Process-oriented thinking gets around this problem by defining the ego as one of our possible observers. The ego is, to begin with at least, the "I" which identifies itself with the doings of the world.
Arnold Mindell • Working on Yourself Alone
Whereas the ego weaves together the world, the shadow unravels the world. Whereas the ego acts as a catalyst of creation in the world, the shadow acts as a catalyst of destruction. Whereas the ego supports the status quo, the shadow is an agent of transformation.
Steven Wolf • Romancing the Shadow
Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is no way out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict in order to put ego-consciousness up against the wall, so that the man has to
... See moreRobert A. Johnson • Owning Your Own Shadow
EGO: The Ultimate Deity: Reflections of the Formation of the Self, its Madness, its Genius
jungian.directory
The Magician energy is the archetype of awareness and of insight, primarily, but also of knowledge of anything that is not immediately apparent or commonsensical. It is the archetype that governs what is called in psychology “the observing Ego.” While it is sometimes assumed in depth psychology that the Ego is secondary in importance to the
... See moreRobert Moore • King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
When Ego operates in the service of Soul, it is the archetype that helps make the process of creating or transforming our lives a conscious one. The Magician is the part of the psyche that can integrate the Shadow and transform it into useful energy.
After formulating the second phase of the transcendent function, the bringing together of the opposites for the production of the third (the first being the emergence of the unconscious material), Jung adds another critical component. Though it may seem somewhat counterintuitive given the importance of the unconscious in Jung’s psychology, he
... See moreJoan Chodorow • The Transcendent Function
Does the ego require a dying process, as the themes of myth and alchemy suggest?