What Does Ego Actually Mean?

[The_Alchemist]

I hear this word thrown around a lot, I have not once heard it defined, what does the word actually mean?

[Gesundheit]

The answer to this question is the difference between being awake and being asleep. This difference cannot be made except by you.

[Barbara]

It would be a great thing for you to contemplate. 

 

[Megan Alecia]

Ego is unconsciousness/active ignorance (Goethe). The ego becomes evil once it starts defending its own agenda, or do worse

[Godhead]

@The_Alchemist I've been very interested in that question as well, so I decided to get every book on amazon that I could find containing the word ego or self and read them all. The clear conclusion: There is no ONE definition. Many people use the word ego to describe different phenomena. But that is also very understandable since what we like to call the ego is a very flexible and complex thing.

The ego has many different shapes and that's probably why it's so hard to define. The "ego" is one of those convenient terms for a postulation about a mystery that defies words and cannot be contained by them. 

I found Ken Wilbers - No Boundary to be one of the best books I've read on that topic. But as @Barbara mentioned, contemplation is the way to go here.

[Someone here]

The (illusory) sense of being a separate self inside the body.

Ego is you. Who you think you are as an individual entity. That is the ego in spiritual circles.

In psychology it's more of the pride or arrogance. It's more of a trait than an entity. 

[Nahm]

Infinite can not know finite.

[The_Alchemist]

1 hour ago, Godhead said:

@The_Alchemist I've been very interested in that question as well, so I decided to get every book on amazon that I could find containing the word ego or self and read them all. The clear conclusion: There is no ONE definition. Many people use the word ego to describe different phenomena. But that is also very understandable since what we like to call the ego is a very flexible and complex thing.

The ego has many different shapes and that's probably why it's so hard to define. The "ego" is one of those convenient terms for a postulation about a mystery that defies words and cannot be contained by them. 

I found Ken Wilbers - No Boundary to be one of the best books I've read on that topic. But as @Barbara mentioned, contemplation is the way to go here.

That's pretty much exactly what I've found, same thing with words like psychopathy, narcissism and sociopathy.

Basically other groups of people need a new "sin" to cast out.