The psyche, the mind, the ego, the self, the soul, the “I”
And what is what, for gods sake!!!!
Some kind of clarification would be nice!
Since i am using those words quite regularly – and i guess we all use them often in a rather unspecific ways, not exactly precise ….
So, for my own sake i will try to be more specific and bring them somehow into a context, just the way i recently attempted with Spirit, Soul, Subtle Levels, Auras, Chakras, Glands and the rest ; )
Don’t want to do that in a scholarly way or create rigid definition …..
Rather paint a soft focus picture of it all, a view that makes coherent sense to me.
And i hope to you as well : )
The Psyche
I find it fascinating that the word “Psyche” comes from Greek Mythology. I like the deep symbolism of the story.
The woman Psyche – born a mortal human – marries Eros, the god of love. First their union is great and joyful but soon it becomes filled with secrecy, betrayal, abandonment.
After much drama, eventually Eros and Psyche re-unite and now she is deemed worthy to become a immortal.
The supreme god Zeus then gives her the name “Goddess of the Soul”
Nowadays the Psyche is studied and explored in psychology and psychotherapy. And sometimes “healed” from its traumas and distortions and quirks ; )
Psyche now refers to the sum of all forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality.
All “inner” processes influenced by conscious as well as subconscious and unconscious forces. Impulses coming from the personal, collective and archetypical unconscious.
Also some physiological changes of body, glands and especially our brain can have significant impact on our psyche.
Most interesting i find the effect of certain psychotropic substances and psychedelic drugs on the psychologic makeup of our psyche.
Sigmund Freud, C.G. Jung and Roberto Assagioli explored all those levels of the psyche and we owe them a lot for their efforts ; )
More advanced approaches of Integral Psychology integrate even deeper levels of influences that shape our psyche.
Obviously, psyche-ology is a fascinating area of study that will allow us to understand “what makes us tick”, what makes us behave how we behave, what makes us feel and think how we think and what goes thru our mind every day.
The Mind
Our mind can be “thought about” as a set of abilities and faculties, mostly cognitive, mental aspects such as conscious perception, thinking, language, memory, rationality, discernment, intelligence, reason, judgement, logic, abstraction, ideas, philosophy, self-awareness and so on.
Mind is what enables us to have a subjective awareness of the world around us and to have intentions and conscious choice and free will to act in this world.
To perceive stimuli, interpret them in an individualized way and respond with agency.
Mind is also a function of the brain and is a potential that can be developed and refined in the span of a lifetime thru education and self-directed development.
For me it is obvious that the mind is not limited to the physical brain but lives in the wider Mental Sphere of Existence, for a while even after the body dies.
The Person / the Individual / The Personality
This describes the typical attributes of a being that makes her/him recognizable and distinctly different from the rest.
The stronger and more developed the person is, the clearer he/she will live out his/her individuality, her/his needs, goals, actions and responsibilities in the world.
A strong person also defines him/her-self clearly in the context of the group and society.
Persona
The word coming from ancient Greek and literally means “mask”, something a actor puts on in theater.
In our everyday life we may choose to wear a persona to make ourself appear more socially acceptable or desirable. We may use it to impress potential partners or make new friends.
People can have multiple personas that they use in various situations, for example at work, with friends, intimate partners, in the bar ….
Persona describes the public image or social role that we project to other people.
On Facebook, Instagram and social networks people go to great length to create a perfect persona, that in actuality can be very different from the real self of the person.
In my opinion, that has a very unhealthy influence on the development of young people’s character and integrity.
Persona can also be called The False Self, Idealized Self, Superficial Self usually is a defensive facade that leaves the person inside feeling isolated and empty, just giving the appearance of being real.
The Authentic Self, Original Self
I use those terms to describe the sense of self that we experience when we are spontaneous and authentic, when we act from the feeling of being fully alive.
I see that in the highest extent manifest in young children, most obvious in 2 – 4 year olds, who were allowed to grow up in loving families, in natural environments.
And also sometimes in mature adults who developed a hight level of integrity, meaning their inner life and outer life are in congruence, they are transparent and direct.
They talk what they think and they walk their talk : )
The Ego
Usually when we talk about someone’s ego, we mean the negative aspects of somebody’s personality.
I rather use Ego to indicate my or somebody’s center of identification.
Lets call it Ego Identification, the parts of ourself that we identify ourselves with at a certain time of our life.
This can be a “Worldly Ego” that is easy to spot in certain politicians, identified with power, influence etc.
Or the “Social Ego” of Youtube Celebrities, identified with fame, material goods aso.
It can also be the so called “Spiritual Ego”, where we may identify with our spiritual development and accomplishments, or our picture of being a enlightened teacher or guru.
I want to say, the Ego is not necessarily bad in itself. It can take on many forms like a chameleon, but at the core it is always the same:
Identification with some part of our self and the crystallization of that specific aspect of ourself.
The stronger this identification is, the more it becomes a role and rigid and not really alive anymore.
Strong Egos don’t want to change and don’t want to be challenged.
They don’t want to look themselves in the mirror voluntarily.
Usually life comes in and the blows of dramatic events crash the rigid shell.
This can happen the hard way in real life or in a gentler version in a good therapy.
The Higher Self
I use this term as a synonym to Soul, which for me is my “true identity” that includes and transcends all the “lower” aspects of my Self.
Like a russian Babushka doll.
Soul is the “vehicle of development” thru my incarnations into bodies/personalities and at the same time my real identity as a Spark of God/Goddess/AllThatIs. Which is called the java-atman in Sanskrit.
You may read more about that soul-stuff in a recent article ; )
The “I”
For me this is the most interesting “aspect” of my experience of myself.
Truly mysterious and impossible to define.
I experience the awareness of “I” as the center of it all, as the witness and observer ever since i “awoke” to self-consciousness.
The center of every experience ever since has been this “I”, ever awake and unchanging.
Everything in my life has changed dramatically repeatedly many times over, but the “I” of me neither changed or grew and developed or even blinked ; )
The Buddhists claim that at the center of the wheel of Dharma is The Full Emptiness.
Christianity says there is The Christ, Unconditional Love and Truth.
The Vedas of India say that it is Brahma who you find when you peel away all your layers of Self like an onion.
The question “Who am I” – the meditation suggested by Ramana Maharshi – may do the peeling of your layers, if you just could do the questioning honestly and deeply enough……
ps: I hope you benefitted a bit from my attempt to create a somewhat coherent picture of such elusive topics like I, me, mine, ego, mind and psyche and the rest.
In case you got more questions than answers, please raise your voice in the Comments section below.
If you wish to help more specifically and support you in your quest of True Identity, please email me at [email protected]
