ego (redirected from egos)

ego (e´go) that segment of the personality dominated by the reality principle, comprising integrative and executive aspects functioning to adapt the forces and pressures of the id and superego and the requirements of external reality by conscious perception, thought, and learning.

---

e·go (g, g)

n.

In psychoanalytic theory, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and mediates between the person and external reality.

---

ego

[ē′gō, eg′ō]

Etymology: Gk, I or self

1 the conscious sense of the self; those elements of a person, such as thinking, feeling, and willing, that distinguish him or her as an individual.

2 (in psychoanalysis) the part of the psyche that experiences and maintains conscious contact with reality and tempers the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the superego with the social and physical needs of society. It represents the rational element of the personality, is the seat of such mental processes as perception and memory, and develops defense mechanisms against anxiety. See also id, superego.

---

ego [e´go]

in psychoanalytic theory, one of the three major parts of the personality, the others being the id and the superego. The word ego is Latin for “I,” that is, self or individual as distinguished from other persons. The ego is represented by certain mental mechanisms, such as perception and memory, and specific defense mechanisms that are used to adjust to the demands of primitive instinctual drives (the id) and the demands of the external world (superego). The ego may be considered the psychologic aspect of one's personality, the id comprising the physiologic aspects and the superego the social aspects. The ego controls and directs an individual's actions and seeks compromises between the id impulses, social and parental prohibitions, and the pressures of reality.ƒ

The word ego also is commonly used to express conceit or self-centeredness. This should not be confused with the psychiatric meaning described above.

---

ego

Psychiatry A major division in the Freudian model of the psychic apparatus, the others being the id and superego; ego is the sum of some mental mechanisms–eg, perception and memory, specific defense mechanisms, and mediates the demands of primitive instinctual drives–the id, of intemalized parental and social prohibitions–the superego, and reality–the compromises between these forces achieved by the ego tend to resolve intrapsychic conflict and serve an adaptive and executive function Vox populi Self-love, selfishness