6. The expansive and flexible nature
of the human ego
The nature of the ego. In their discussion of Jung’s Analytic Theory, Calvin Hall and Gardner Lindsey write in their classic textbook Theories of Personality (1978) “The ego…. is made up of conscious perceptions, memories, thoughts, and feelings. The ego is responsible for one’s feeling of identity and continuity, and from the viewpoint of the individual person it is regarded as being at the center of consciousness” (Hall & Lindsey, 1978, p. 118). Transpersonal writer and mystic Jane Roberts (1974) elaborates:
The ego is composed of various portions of the personality – it is a combination of characteristics, ever-changing, that act in a unitary fashion – the portion of the personality that deals most directly with the world… The ego, while appearing the same to itself, ever changes… The ego and the conscious mind are not the same thing…. In certain terms, the ego is the eye through which the conscious mind perceives, or the focus through which it views physical reality…. The ego is only a portion of You; it is that expert part of your personality that deals directly with the contents of your conscious mind, and is concerned most directly with the material portions of your experience. The ego is a very specialized portion of your greater identity. It is a portion of you that arises to deal directly with the life that the larger You is living. (Roberts, 1974, p. 16)
The e Ego’s purpose is expansive rather than restrictive. Jung acknowledged that while one function of the ego was to act as a dam, holding back other perceptions, it is not in the nature of the ego to act in such a fashion, however. The ego hampers the self’s natural inclinations because it has been trained to do so. We have been trained, conditioned, and socialized by parents and teachers, society and religion to believe that it is the ego’s purpose is restrictive rather than expanding. After putting blinders upon the ego, hampering its perceptions and native flexibility, we observe its inflexibility and then conclude that this is its natural function and characteristic.
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The Ego is capable of much more. Jung realized that the ego is capable of much more attentional capacity and open awareness than we give it credit for. Jung recognized that the ego does want to understand and interpret physical reality and to relate to it, that it is not an inferior portion of the self, and that it wants to help the personality survive within physical existence and does so with the aid of inner portions of the Self.
7. The supportive nature of subconscious portions of the psyche
Jung came to believe that the subconscious portions of our personality contain more than chaotic, infantile impulses that are not to be trusted, as Freud had claimed. For Jung, the order of nature, the creative drama of our dreams, the precision with which we unconsciously grow from a fetus to an adult without a whit of conscious thought, the existence of mythic themes and heroic quests and ideals that pervade the history of our species, all give evidence of a greater psychic reality within which we have our being. The unconscious is not to be feared but is to be sought as an aid and helper and supporter in solving life’s problems. Transpersonal writer and mystic Jane Roberts (1976) clarifies this point:
Our particular kind of individual consciousness is natural and rises from the psyche as easily as leaves grow from trees. The unconscious forms conscious focus; needs it, seeks it out, and operates in the objective world under its auspices. The unconscious is the constant creator of our individuality and not its great usurper; not the dark king ever ready to do us in and set up its own kingdom instead. Without the unconscious, there’d be no conscious kingdom to begin with. Such beliefs in the threatening elements of the unconscious make us fear the source of our being and hamper the fuller facets of individuality possible. (Roberts, 1976, pp. 321-322)
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