Ego defensesWhat are some ego defenses?

This is not your ordinary Freudian list of ego defenses. Freud’s list of ego defenses looks something like this:

  • Denial, Repression, and Suppression
  • Displacement and Sublimation
  • Projection and Intellectualization
  • Rationalization
  • Regression
  • Reaction Formation

The difference in these two lists of ego defenses is that one concerns itself with the ego’s defense against anxiety seeking equilibrium for an ego sense of self, while the other list is more oriented around the ego defending itself from the intrusion of Being.

Rare is the teacher that can take a student beyond the anxiety and terror of ego dissolution and into the emptiness that offers the opportunity for one’s true nature to arise.

Just this past week, while attending some advanced training on narcissism, I got wondering about pain (emotional and psychological). Why do we avoid it? Exactly what is psychological and emotional pain?

It’s said that all emotional and psychological pain is caused by separation from Being.

It all boils down to – Who are you taking yourself to be?

 

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