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The Journal of Analytical Psychology Apr 2021This article explores clinical encounters with experiences of the 'empty ego' which arise from early relational trauma. The ego's emptiness is held in repetitious...
This article explores clinical encounters with experiences of the 'empty ego' which arise from early relational trauma. The ego's emptiness is held in repetitious complexes and arises out of affectively charged experiences between self and other which remain split-off from awareness. This kind of consciousness is viewed as dualistic, separating non-dual subjectivity from its dualistic objects of consciousness. In contrast, what I am calling healing void states of non-dualistic consciousness, when admitted to awareness, allow the individual to dis-identify from the traumatizing representations of self and other through an experience of non-duality. In contrast to an objectified, dualistic emptiness of the ego, healing void states come about in moments of non-dual, unified consciousness. These states occur in the ego-Self relationship by linking the ego's dualistic awareness in chronic subject/object splits to ones of non-dual pure consciousness. The healing void state is always incipiently present and potentially able to bridge the ego-Self connection in bogged-down treatment. The paper explores potential integrations with non-dual models of consciousness such as Vedantic and Kashmir Shaivism, among other mystical traditions. A combined Vedantic-Jungian understanding can provide a transcendent bridge that integrates Eastern concepts of non-duality in treating emptiness.
Topics: Clinical Medicine; Consciousness; Ego; Humans
PubMed: 34038584
DOI: 10.1111/1468-5922.12663 -
PloS One 2022We study how individuals' effort contribution to a team production task varies depending on whether the task is ego relevant or not. We conduct an experiment to test the...
We study how individuals' effort contribution to a team production task varies depending on whether the task is ego relevant or not. We conduct an experiment to test the effect of ego-relevance when the team production depends on the team's top- or bottom-performer. Ego-relevance is manipulated by calling the Raven IQ Test an "IQ Task" or a "Pattern Task." We find that the effort contributed to the task is affected by ego-relevance and the impact of the team production function on effort contribution is mediated by the teammate's expected effort contribution. Ego-relevance increases the responsiveness to the teammate's expected effort contributions. Similarly, more responsive behavior is noticeable when the team production depends on the bottom-performer. However, we do not observe interaction-effects between ego-relevance and the team production function that affect effort contributions.
Topics: Humans; Ego
PubMed: 36542636
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279391 -
Medical Education Jan 2022Our very sense of self emerges through interactions with others. As part of this State of the Science series on Self, Society, and Situation, we introduce a qualitative...
INTRODUCTION
Our very sense of self emerges through interactions with others. As part of this State of the Science series on Self, Society, and Situation, we introduce a qualitative ego network research approach. This research approach offers insights into the self's (the ego's) interpretation of and relation to named others in the social network in question.
PURPOSE
Visual mapping of participants' social networks is gaining traction, yet this research approach has received no focused attention in the health professions education (HPE) literature. A qualitative ego network approach is a compelling research approach because it uniquely maps participants' perceptions of the complex social world they are embedded in. Although many methodologies can explore participants' social world, ego networks can enhance expression of tacit knowledge of one's social environment and encourage reflection. This approach, combined with other qualitative data, can also reveal hidden relational data that the researcher may not observe or consider. To demonstrate its value as a visual methodology, we will showcase two examples of qualitative ego network studies. We then balance the paper with some critical reflections of this research approach.
CONCLUSIONS
A qualitative ego network approach holds potential for deepening understanding of the self in relation to society and situation in future HPE research. We look forward to intentional, impactful and invigorated research using a qualitative ego network approach as we tackle unknowns about how self and society in specific HPE situations interact.
Topics: Ego; Health Occupations; Humans; Knowledge; Qualitative Research; Social Networking
PubMed: 34490649
DOI: 10.1111/medu.14663 -
Journal of Personality Disorders Dec 2006
Topics: Ego; Humans; Identification, Psychological; Personality Development; Research Design; Self Concept; Social Identification
PubMed: 17192137
DOI: 10.1521/pedi.2006.20.6.541 -
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Apr 2021We addressed whether narcissism and self-esteem synergize to enhance assertive responses and deter aggressive responses to ego-threatening provocation. Participants ( =...
We addressed whether narcissism and self-esteem synergize to enhance assertive responses and deter aggressive responses to ego-threatening provocation. Participants ( = 448) completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem, imagined ego-threatening provocation, and indicated their aggressive and assertive responses. Participants also completed individual difference measures of agreeableness, openness, status/dominance motivation, and endorsement of the notion that aggression begets power. Narcissism and self-esteem interacted to reduce aggressive responses but enhance assertive responses to ego-threat; moreover, this interaction related to enhanced agreeableness, openness, status/dominance motivation, and reduced endorsement of the belief that aggression begets power, and these relations accounted, in part, for relations between the interaction and aggressive and assertive responses. Broadly, the findings contribute to the contentious issue of how self-evaluation influences responses to ego-threat; specifically, we would suggest that this issue be conceptualized in terms of synergistic effects of narcissism and self-esteem and distinguish between assertive versus aggressive responding.
Topics: Aggression; Assertiveness; Ego; Humans; Narcissism; Self Concept
PubMed: 29806560
DOI: 10.1177/0886260518777551 -
Theoretical Medicine Mar 1991In the act of self-observation, an individual becomes simultaneously observer and observed, subject and object. While some philosophical psychologists have dismissed... (Review)
Review
In the act of self-observation, an individual becomes simultaneously observer and observed, subject and object. While some philosophical psychologists have dismissed this reflexivity, the present author proposes that it is the essential feature of the self, making it the basis of a new, conceptually simple, structural and dynamic theory of the self. Drawing from psychopathology, poetry and literature, the author portrays normal and disordered psychological states as disturbances in reflexivity. Qualitative and quantitative variations in this core function are proposed to define discreet spectra of psychological situations. The author briefly examines the theories and practices of psychoanalytic and existential psychology, and proposes clinical applications of the new views here depicted. He attempts to show that inherent limits to our simultaneous knowledge of both aspects of the reflexive duality limit the precision and validity of all psychological theorization.
Topics: Ego; Humans; Narcissism; Philosophy; Psychotherapy
PubMed: 1853298
DOI: 10.1007/BF02134778 -
The Journal of Analytical Psychology Jan 1997This paper develops a theoretical and clinical approach to the self which is non-essentialist and post-modern. Briefly, it offers a framework for theorizing Self based...
This paper develops a theoretical and clinical approach to the self which is non-essentialist and post-modern. Briefly, it offers a framework for theorizing Self based on hermeneutics and psychological constructivism. It then develops a critique of the essentialist Jungian theory of Self in which the Self is frequently described as a human subject with views, intentions and desires of its own. With this as background, a post-modern Jungian framework for Self is advanced, with a brief clinical account of the self in analysis.
Topics: Ego; Humans; Individuation; Jungian Theory; Psychoanalysis
PubMed: 9062088
DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-5922.1997.00157.x -
The International Journal of... Dec 2023
Topics: Humans; Ego; Psychoanalytic Theory
PubMed: 38127477
DOI: 10.1080/00207578.2023.2278882 -
Medicine and Health, Rhode Island Aug 2002
Topics: Ego; Ethics; Publishing; United States
PubMed: 12378685
DOI: No ID Found -
The Journal of Analytical Psychology Jun 2008In this paper(1), written in draft form in 1991 and now posthumously published, the late Louis Zinkin(2) presents a constructivist view of the self. He considers some of...
In this paper(1), written in draft form in 1991 and now posthumously published, the late Louis Zinkin(2) presents a constructivist view of the self. He considers some of the paradoxes in Jungian definitions of the self and compares these to Winnicott's 'forbidden question' regarding the transitional object: 'Did you find it or did you make it?'. He argues that, for the purposes of a coherent scientific theory, these apparent paradoxes need to be formulated in an internally consistent way. Bemused by the many contradictions in Jung's thinking, he proposes making a fresh start by thinking in terms of people in social interaction with each other rather than as solitary subjects, as Jung did. This leads him to the view that the self comes into existence through continuing interaction with other people. Drawing on the work of Harré and Vygotsky, he suggests that the public self is prior to the private self and that one becomes real through recognition by other people in and through language and culture. The paper was discussed at a meeting held at the Society of Analytical Psychology in November 1991 and an edited version of the taped discussion follows.
Topics: Ego; Humans; Psychoanalytic Interpretation; Psychoanalytic Theory
PubMed: 18494674
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5922.2008.00733.x