Why Your Ego Is Ruining Your Life - Carl Jung

Hello,
What is the link to the next video? Thanks.

The fact that my wife should only be happy with me sexualy and not have the freedom to be exactly where she wants

Common Misunderstanding

People sometimes use the word ego to mean arrogance, selfishness, or something that must be destroyed. This usage differs from the word’s established meanings in psychology and can create unnecessary confusion.

In psychology, ego has different meanings depending on the theoretical perspective. In classical psychoanalysis, it refers to mental functions that help you understand reality, make decisions, regulate your behavior, solve problems, and maintain a coherent sense of self. These are healthy and necessary functions—not something to eliminate.

The goal is not to destroy your sense of self but to develop greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, intellectual humility, and sound judgment. A healthy mind learns to question its assumptions, recognize its limitations, update its beliefs when warranted by evidence, and make wiser choices.

Strategies That Can Help

• Use psychological terms according to their established definitions.
• Notice when confidence becomes overconfidence, rigidity, or defensiveness.
• Practice changing your mind when the evidence supports it.
• Develop humility without losing a healthy sense of self.
• Describe specific behaviors rather than using vague labels whenever possible.

Empowering Question

What belief or assumption could I examine more carefully today, and what evidence would help me arrive at a wiser, more accurate conclusion?

I honestly have no answer to who am I without the masks

it really is eh

if you’re in your Ego you’re not self actualizing so you never get your best results

it’s part of why Hope of all Evils stays in Pandora’s Box

(aside: they always blame a woman eh)

it forces you to work at accepting reality which is a journey of grief

you can look at your Ego as your backlog of unprocessed emotions

they’re still there stored in your body a lot of it as tension in the muscles

figured Adam was Ego rebranded in the Bible

and the Sky rules them all through Ego

Listening from Gallup NM n thank you....🫶💪🙏

This video made sense. Thank you 😊😊😊

Be still and know God. Dont think so much.

I think the quote is correct but I doubt Jung actualy said or wrote this as I can't find the suorce.

The secret is to tell yourself it is not safe to fear the unknown. It's much safer to accept the unknown, and that the unknown is actually safe for you. You have to use safety as its secret code, and safety, as its secret code, is there to protect you. It doesn't care about if you succeed or not.

So beautiful said ❤

I know how to find my source where i can please and act as per my ego, but the moment they don’t act the way i want them, i go blank

And i don’t know how to change that, because i fear being alone

i can see the signs .. but after so many years beeing a slave to my thoughts and emotions, the fear of questioning still pulls "me" back

Lovely. I needed this. Going through a divorce after a 13 year marriage. Getting my mind right and self help.

I been living a lie forsure

Someone explain simple and short

I find it to be quite a toxic trait in society that we have weaponized and demonized words like ego persona psyche, shadow, subconscious.
And even worse when we are not doing that we weaponize and demonize the traits characteristics attributes and qualities or attitudes and behaviors of which we think are bad wrong negative or toxic within others while simultaneously not observing or recognizing our own.
Furthermore if you go to therapy or counseling with a real professional counselor or psychologist or psychiatrist they are not using these outdated terms.
This was not in the intention of Carl Jung 🤬🤬🤬🤬

The frustration I am expressing expressing is deeply resonant for those who value the nuance and historical intent behind psychological frameworks. It is a valid observation that our current cultural climate has a tendency to strip complex concepts of their original utility, turning them into blunt instruments for social signaling or moral condemnation.

The Dilution of Depth
What what I have been observing basically since 2010 is the "pop-psychology" effect, where intricate maps of the human internal landscape—intended for self-reflection and understanding—are flattened into buzzwords.

When concepts like the shadow or the persona are removed from their original context of internal exploration, they cease to be tools for growth and instead become labels to categorize others. This creates a performative environment.

The goal shifts from self-integration to public labeling, which is often the opposite of what these frameworks were designed to achieve.
The Shift in Professional Standards
It's correct that modern clinical psychology has largely pivoted away from these classical, abstract terms.

Behavioral Focus: Contemporary modalities, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), prioritize functional, observable behaviors and measurable outcomes over metaphysical or archetypal analysis.

Practicality vs. Philosophy: Professionals today are often focused on symptom reduction and adaptive functioning rather than mapping the psyche in the way Jung might have approached it.

The Problem with Jargon: Using outdated, high-concept vocabulary in a clinical setting can sometimes create distance between the practitioner and the client, rather than fostering the direct, clear communication needed to address specific life challenges.

The Irony of Modern Discourse
There is a profound, albeit painful, irony in the way people use these terms to criticize others.
The original intent of looking at one's shadow—a concept Jung championed—is to confront the parts of oneself that are repressed or denied.

When people weaponize these words, they are often projecting their own unrecognized flaws onto others. They are essentially using a concept meant for deep, internal inquiry as a shield to avoid that very inquiry. It is the externalization of the "bad" to maintain a comfortable, static version of the self.

Jung’s Original Intent
Jung viewed the process of individuation—the path toward becoming one's true self—as a messy, lifelong, and intensely private endeavor. It was never intended to be a rubric for judging the morality or psychological state of others in a public forum.

By taking these concepts and turning them into social weapons, we have effectively stripped them of their transformative power. We are left with a vocabulary of judgment and condemnation rather than a language of liberation.

My frustration highlights a desire for a more honest and grounded approach to human behavior—one that favors self-responsibility over the convenient, hollow act of labeling others.

Those who speak about the dangers or negative and dark or bad or wrong or toxic effects of the following archetypes such as ego persona psyche subconscious or shadow. Are similar to the kids on the playground that we're trying to avoid kids with cooties.

It's time to grow up folks it's time to get familiar with modern terminology as well as modern practices within cognitive behavioral therapy acceptance based therapy as well as rational and motive behavioral therapy.

And no this does not mean that we should throw around arbitrary made up labels for other mental health conditions such as but not limited to: narcissist psychopath sociopath schizophrenic, bipolar or otherwise.
Especially when we do not hold psychology degrees psychological training or education and not to mention the verified certification that is required.

Side note: other terms such as dunning Kruger or imposter syndrome or people pleaser.
Are not actual verifiable diagnosis that are recognized by modern psychologists or counselors for the matter.

EGO= Certainty in the the world where there is only uncertainties = Destruction
HUMILITY = Embracing uncertainties = Construction.

These things destroy. To thyself be TRUE so that you can quickly address that which didn’t align and is stopping you.

My identity is lost I don’t know who I am anymore, I’m plagued by depression, I drown myself in substances to silence the voices in my head, unable to recall the days that had already passed. Without even uttering a word I hope someone hears my calls for help…. a help that will never come…

I always found a way to put the whole fault on other people when I burned bridges

I'm a victim of my ego but thought I was kinda free of it.

Just look at any group of four-year-olds and you will see that there are no people pleasers and they simply are completely themselves. The ego has not corrupted them yet to become people pleasers.

The ego is the thing that says, "I am here, and I matter." Without it, we never would have left the cave. It’s the energy that looks at the Ice Age and refuses to stay cold.

Left unchecked, it becomes arrogance, corruption, and the "smirk" of the politician who thinks they are a monarch.

But guided correctly, it becomes ambition, the will to build a vaccine, and the courage to say "no" to the universe.

Thank you, my dear friend, you have freed me from a 10-year prison.

❤❤

Some people's ego is what their child abuse shaped them into . sadly...

What if you have been refrained of having an 'ego' at such young age?

Thank you so much😊

This simple demonstration may bring clarity.

If I pushed you over, as you begin to fall, your instincts naturally attempt to find balance or brace for impact. That part of you exists before you formally learn “language” but it’s always there that’s why babies need protection because your auto self protection is developed much higher than a baby’s. It doesn’t need words it knows it want to be safe and live. Language has made that natural instinct a mental abstraction separate from you. It it is you seeking safety to live and survival be on many levels even just not to fall over.

Amazing thanks 👏

The best voice ever!! What is the name of this excellent speaker?

Bravo 👏

Ego is neccessary but must be kept in check and in service to the soul. It is not my essence, it is my tool with neccessary functions, but not my master. If i allow it to run the show, I will be iving in shadow aspects (trauma, wounds, unresloved emotions... unlived aspects of self) and living my life on autopilot. "Ego prefers a known hell, to an unknown paradise."

Not Destruction but Mastery! The enemy is found in the pain because pain is the last place where identity feels truly threatened. Pleasure can be rationalized, success can be incorporated, belief can be rehearsed... but pain strips away narrative. When pain arises, the ego cannot hide behind explanations or performance. It must either flee, distract, or confront. That is why pain feels dangerous, not because it harms awareness, but because it threatens the story that awareness has been clinging to in order to feel continuous and in control.

The enemy "Ego, Adversary, Satan" is a self-preserving pattern that equates survival with the maintenance of identity. Its function is simple. To prevent dissolution. It learned early, often through real injury or abandonment, that certain sensations were intolerable. From that moment on, it built defenses. Those defenses became habits. Those habits became “me/you.” The enemy is nothing more than the habit of avoiding direct contact with what once overwhelmed the system.

Pain is where this pattern consolidates power because pain collapses abstraction. You cannot philosophize your way out of it. You cannot future plan your way around it. Pain drags attention into immediacy, and immediacy exposes falseness. That is why the adversary feels “worthy” there. It is the only place where the fight is real, because it is the only place where illusion cannot easily survive.

The adversary’s core tactic is not violence or temptation. It is persuasion. Its single argument is: “If you stay with this or choose otherwise, you will not survive.” That sentence may appear as fear, panic, shame, despair, or urgency, desire, temptation but the content is always the same. The ego does not need to win. It only needs you to leave. The moment you dissociate, explain, suppress, or distract, it retains control.

Exposure does not mean suffering more. It means removing the intermediary. You do not relive the past, analyze the wound, or dramatize the pain. You simply remain present with sensation without assigning it meaning. The body shakes, tightens, burns, or collapses, and you do not interfere. You do not try to heal. You do not try to transcend. You stay in the here, now, moment.

There is a precise internal rupture when exposure is complete. The pain reaches intensity. The system expects annihilation. And then… nothing happens. Awareness remains. Breathing continues. Time moves. The sensation shifts. At that exact moment, the adversary is exposed. Not destroyed, fully revealed. Its foundational claim is proven false.

Once exposed, the enemy loses authority. It may still speak, but it no longer commands. This is why spiritual language by Jesus says, “get behind me.” The ego is not killed; it is repositioned. It returns to being a tool rather than a ruler. Identity becomes functional instead of sovereign. The system no longer organizes itself around avoidance.

This is why pain transforms after exposure. Before, pain fragmented consciousness and triggered control. After, pain becomes information. It signals boundaries, truth, and alignment. It grounds rather than destabilizes. This is why mature figures do not fear difficulty. Difficulty no longer threatens their existence; it only challenges their efficiency.

Spiritually, this is the meaning of wrestling with God. You are not fighting a deity; you are confronting the limits of control. You emerge marked, not punished, not glorified, just less false. Something essential has been surrendered, and something essential remains. That remainder is not identity. It is awareness itself.

The reason most spiritual systems avoid this depth is simple, it cannot be commodified. There is no audience for it. No costume. No shortcut. It produces quieter people, not louder ones. It produces steadiness, not spectacle. And because it cannot be simulated, it cannot be faked.

The final truth is this! the enemy never wanted domination. It wanted certainty. It wanted continuity. It wanted safety through control. When pain is met directly and awareness remains intact, the enemy’s job is finished. It has nothing left to protect. And in that moment, without force, without drama, the one who seemed to run the show steps aside.

Pain was never the prison. Pain was the doorway. The walk through that door is your journey, your story. True Mastery!

Guys don't get dragged by another person's ego. This is a deterministic world.

I’ve honestly never felt empty thooo I feel meanness heavy I feel love strong I feel all my feels never felt empty just heavy confused 😵‍💫 lately

Bro I'm this in my head is someon or something is always saying ( you need to kill them ) if I face with someon like my freinds

I have inflated ego which is really fregile I tend to look down on others who are bellow me and I am always feeling envious of others success.

Incredible!

I spent 12 years of my life in the bottle. Outwardly it was insanity, but inwardly it was my ego run riot. It is a process and also one i don’t think anyone can truly do alone. Powerful stuff.

Should I take the blue pill or the red pill?

Stoicism feels timeless here.

i think i mightve spent my whole life confusing ego with self appreciation/esteem

Most people talk about negative ego without ever defining it, which creates confusion & spreads misinformation. Negative ego is just the defensive, inflated, or reactive pattern that blocks clarity, but it isn’t the whole story. Humans also have a positive ego that supports identity, confidence, healthy boundaries, purpose, self-respect, & the inner stability that lets you cultivate & maintain inner peace. When people ignore the positive ego, they end up treating all ego as something to kill or suppress, which is never true. What actually helps is understanding both sides so you can strengthen the positive ego while outgrowing the limiting patterns of the negative ego through awareness, honesty, & self-responsibility. The universal truth is: ego becomes healthy when the positive ego is strengthened, the negative ego is dissolved, & your awareness guides both toward clarity, peace, & growth.

The 5 fingers on the pictures was genuinely distracting lol but atleast human artists will always be valuable I guess

Letting go of the ego is tough.

how do i supress my ego?