Recentering the Self : A Defense of the Ego / Michael Washburn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Washburn, Michael, 1943- author.

Series:

SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology.

SUNY Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychology in literature.

Learning, Psychology of.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (536 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2023]

Summary:

Reformulates the notion of the ego and provides a new perspective for understanding ego development and the role of the ego in spiritual life.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Rethinking the Notion of the Ego

Chapter 1 The Birth of the Ego: Descartes's "Thing That Thinks"

The Ego Is an Incorporeal Substance

1. The ego is the unifier of consciousness

2. The ego is always whole or complete

3. The ego is the owner of consciousness

4. The ego is a necessary basis of consciousness

5. The ego remains permanent through changes in consciousness

An Inventory of the Cartesian Soul

Faculties-Intellect and Will

Ideas-Innate, Adventitious, Invented

Actions and Passions of the Soul

The Ego Is the Sovereign Power of the Soul

Conclusion

Chapter 2 Before the Ego: Greek Philosophy, Christian Doctrine, and the New Physics of the Seventeenth Century

Plato and Aristotle

The Beginnings of Modern Science

From the Premodern Soul to the Ego of the Modern Period

The Ego Is the Interior Subject of Consciousness

The Ego Is an Executive Agency that Performs Cognitive and Practical Functions

The Ego Is the Unifier Consciousness

The Ego Is Always Whole or Complete

Chapter 3 Rethinking the Notion of the Ego, Stage One: From Descartes to the End of the Nineteenth Century

Question 1

If the ego is not an incorporeal substance, how can it be the unifying center and owner of consciousness?

Question 2

If the ego is not an incorporeal substance, how can it be the executive agency of consciousness?

Question 3

If the ego is not an incorporeal substance, need it always be fully constituted as subject and executive agency of consciousness?

Question 4

If the ego is not an incorporeal substance, is there any reason to believe that it is a necessary basis of consciousness?

Question 5.

If the ego is not an incorporeal substance, how, if at all, can it be self-identical and, perhaps, permanent (uninterrupted in its existence) over the course of a lifetime?

Chapter 4 Rethinking the Notion of the Ego, Stage Two: The Twentieth Century

Question 6

How is the traditional view that the ego has the power to regulate the passions to be evaluated in response to Freudian psychoanalysis, which provided both a theory of psychopathology and clinical evidence demonstrating that the ego is prey to the passions in many ways?

Question 7

How is the traditional view that the ego exercises direct and complete control of its executive functions to be evaluated in response to advances in our understanding of psychopathologies of thought and action and in response to philosophical views stressing the spontaneity of consciousness?

Question 8

How is the traditional view that the ego resides within the interior of the psyche to be evaluated in response to phenomenological accounts of the primacy of embodiment and being-in-the-world?

Question 9

How is the traditional view that the ego has full, privileged access to itself to be evaluated in response to depth psychology, symbolic interactionism, and relational psychoanalysis?

Question 10

How is the traditional view that the ego is the author of its identity to be evaluated in response to postmodernists' accounts of the socially constructed self?

Question 11

How is the traditional view that the ego is gender-neutral to be evaluated in response to the argument that the notion of the ego as it has emerged in patriarchal societies more accurately represents men's subjectivity than women's?

Question 12.

How is the traditional view that the ego is ontologically distinct from the body to be evaluated in response to advances in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience?

Chapter 5 The Ego's Self-System and Lifeworld

The Self-System

The Lifeworld

Part II: Rethinking Ego Development

Chapter 6 The First Four Weeks

Does the Newborn Have an Ego?

Ego and Self-System

The Lifeworld-A Child-Centered Microcosm

Chapter 7 Infancy

Strengthening of Ego and Activation of Executive Functions

The Lifeworld-A Space of Child-Caregiver Intersubjectivity

Chapter 8 Early Toddling

Separation Anxiety

The Lifeworld-A "Garden of Delight"

Chapter 9 Late Toddling and the Preschool Years

The Crisis-Adjustment Stage

Executive Functions and Intuitive Understanding of Categories Combine-Symbolic Thinking and Symbol-Guided Action

The Self-System-Emergence of the Self-Representation

Crisis-Acute Ambivalence

Splitting Emerges as Mechanism of Defense

Chapter 10 Middle Childhood

Emergence of Inner Speech-Verbally Implemented Executive Functions

From Splitting to Integration of the Self-Representation

Emergence of Ego Ideal and Superego-Completion of Self-System

Repression, the Achievement of Self-Control, and the Formation of the Shadow

The Lifeworld-A Field of Play

Chapter 11 Adolescence

Rapidly Maturing Cognitive Functions, Challenges to Self-Control

The Experimental Character of the Self-System

The Lifeworld-A Rehearsal Stage

Identity, Worth, and the Possibility of Shadow Awakening

Chapter 12 Early Adulthood

Cognitive Executive Functions-Peak and Beginning of Decline

The Self-System Based on Adult Social Roles.

Generalization-Adolescent Anxieties Wane

Repression and the Formation of the Adult Shadow

Consolidation of the Role-Based Self-System

The Lifeworld-A Workplace

Chapter 13 Midlife

Three Pathways through Midlife

Declining Cognitive Executive Functions, Fluid versus Crystallized Intelligence, Postformal Thinking

The Pathway of Dissatisfaction

Effects of Midlife Dissatisfaction on the Self-System

Midlife Dissatisfaction and the Possibility of Shadow Awakening

The Lifeworld-A Place of Duty and Repetition of the Same

Chapter 14 Retirement

Self-System and Lifeworld-Changes That Apply to Everyone

Four Pathways, Four Lifeworlds

Pathway of Succumbing to Loss, Lifeworld of Idleness and Isolation

Pathway of Enjoying Freedom, Lifeworld of Leisure or Recreation

Pathway of Meeting the Challenge, Lifeworld of Commitment and Responsibility

Pathway of Answering the Call, Lifeworld of Devotion or Practice

Chapter 15 Old Age

Reflective Self-Understanding

Adjustments to the Self-System in Old Age

How Old Age Transforms the Lifeworld

Recollecting the Past-An Example of a Life Review

Did I follow my own course in life?

Did I achieve my goals?

Did I meet my responsibilities?

Part III: Rethinking the Ego's Role in Spiritual Life

Chapter 16 Spiritual Preawakening

Points to Keep in Mind in Reading Part 3

How Is Spirit to Be Conceived?

Spiritual Preawakening

World-Weariness

Inner and Outer Expressions of Spirit-Enfolded and Transcendent Spirit

How World-Weariness Affects the Self-System

Shadow Awakening

Lifeworld-Aridity, Unreality, Desolation

The First Stage of Regression in the Service of Integration

Chapter 17 Spiritual Awakening

Spirit Manifests Itself as a Supernatural Power.

Spirit Asserts Itself as the Sovereign Power of the Soul

Consolations and Afflictions during Spiritual Awakening

The Awakening of Spirit within the Body

The Shadow Awakens without the Possibility of Rerepression

Self-System Is Reenlivened and Transformed by Sovereign Spirit

Lifeworld-Numinous Spirit and the Dark Wood

The Second Stage of Regression in the Service of Integration

Chapter 18 Spiritual Growth

From Sovereign Spirit to Caring Spirit

Consolations and Afflictions during Spiritual Growth

Caring Spirit's Transformation of the Self-System

Lifeworld-Radiant Spirit and the Forest Clearing

The Third Stage of Regression in the Service of Integration

Chapter 19 Spiritual Maturity

How Spiritual Development Can Fail to Reach Its Goal

Difficulties in Understanding Ego-Spirit Integration

The Spiritually Mature Self-System

How Spiritually Mature People Are Perceived by Others

The Lifeworld-Native Spirit in a Na4turally Supernatural World

The Goal of Regression in the Service of Integration

Postscript

Notes

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4384-9468-8

OCLC:

1402024439