The Ego And The Self

14 Pages 3556 Words

elf, its mother, and the world around it. After some months, of course, the baby learns to identify many different people and things, and learns that it is "inside" its own body, looking out on the world. At the same time, the baby is learning how to manipulate the people and things on the outside to get the things it needs and wants. By the time the baby becomes a walking, talking individual, the basic concept of the ego as something separate from the rest of the world is almost completely developed. But what psychologists call identity is only beginning to develop at this point; as the child grows older, it comes to "identify" many different things as part of its own identity. Some of the elements that make up the growing identity are relationships to other people; ideas about itself and whether it is good or bad, stupid or smart, ugly or beautiful; a sense of worth or self-esteem based on what has been learned or done; and many other things.

From this viewpoint, I can see that the ego seems to be a narrower concept than the total id...