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EGO

In anthropology this refers to the individual from whom the networks of kinship and family relationship and descent are reckoned and traced. In psychology the term is used to refer to the self of the individual and the way they have constructed their personality and identity in society. In Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the ego is the outcome of the individual's struggle to adapt their basic drives (the ‘id’) to the imperative control of society and culture (the ‘super ego’). Between their drives and the coercive influence of social expectation, individuals create a sphere of unique personality.

Last updated 2002--0-9-

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© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
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