It looks like I forgot to write anything for yesterday. Good. It was uneventful until the end of the evening. Kathrin called and said that she and her friend were locked into the parking lot at the beach. They had spent time sitting on the beach, watching the sunset and the rising moon. They had to get someone to unlock the gate. She asked if her friend could sleepover. Of course. I know the person. Yogis and vegetarians surround me. Must mean something. I feel somewhat invaded. Well, it’s someone new in my territory. I accept that it is a natural reaction and don’t invest in it.
Then I felt Mike’s presence. He was thrilled that there was another person in the house ‘to keep me safe.’ Okay, there is some vestigial male protectiveness. I don’t think two other people could do much to protect me if they were unfortunate enough to have an opportunity to do so. But, I love that my Mike is still invested in my wellbeing. He could do that without limiting me, turning me into ‘the little woman.” No, he never did that. He did sometimes turn me into ‘ the incompetent woman,’ mostly on the subject of car keys. I always handed them over to him. It made him feel better. What the heck!
Kathrin went with me to Bikram today. It was her first class. Again it was a small class, only eight total.
Elsa had a three pm appointment with the vet or her annual physical. I nearly slept through it. I thought I had set my alarm, but it reverted to the wrong time. We made it just in the nick of time.
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Musings: I’m putting this separately so those who are not interested can choose not to read it.
Corrections on the Jungian theory of personality ego.
I based my thoughts on Jung’s theory of ego from the diagram. I thought about that image of a circle with a dot in the middle, the circle representing the self and the dot representing the ego, and revised some of my thinking.
Manuel’s interpretation at the Krishna service of Jung’s theory of the ego was also wrong. He said Jung supported the theory that there was a true ego and a false ego. The self isn’t the true ego. At least not as I understand from what I have now read. I wouldn’t take on Jung’s original writings; he’s too convoluted in his thinking and verbal expression. Here’s to clarity.
As I interpret Jung now, the self is everything we are; the ego is all we acknowledge. The ego is a small dot compared to the self. The ego represents the parts of ourselves that we believe we are. The self represents too much information, both positive and negative, for us to deal with easily. The ego is a bearable summary of what we can tolerate to know.
The ego can be a healthy, balanced, and in touch with reality, both in terms of our relationship to the physical and social world around us and our inner drives, or unhealthy. The unhealthy ego is usually some exaggerated sense of ourselves: we can see ourselves as all-powerful or helpless. We can see ourselves as pure of heart and never hurting anyone, or we can see ourselves as worthless and destructive. There are adults, and sadly children, who see themselves as worthless even evil, which is usually a disturbed sense of self, taken to some extreme. Someone who is ego-centered does not always have a glowing image of themselves. An unbalanced, unhealthy ego can go either way. Developing an ego that is genuinely in touch with reality is tricky.
The ego has to deal with external circumstances realistically, but it often has to take on the challenge of external circumstances and try to change it. There are biases in society that prohibit groups of people from entitlement to succeed, like women and minority groups. Is someone who challenges this bias out of touch with reality? They can be entirely in touch with what society is about but feel it is their calling to challenge these concepts and push society to change. It’s a dirty job, and someone has to do it. That’s how societies change and grow. There has to be someone out there prepared to take that risk. Do those who are firmly anchored in reality have a better chance of taking on this challenge? Or do we need people who have an exaggerated sense of themselves to blind them to the dangers they face so they can get the job done? Is it possible to stay balanced and challenge the powers that be?
