So, what are the elements that go into ego functioning? mrw This is a complicated question with no h

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I was supervising a therapy case the other day of a college student who was not reporting clinically mrw significant levels of depression or anxiety, but she was frequently engaging in significant alcohol consumption (occasionally leading to black outs) and indiscriminate sexual encounters with men she barely knew. A part of Megan (name changed) felt this was wrong, but she really couldn t say why or stay with what was wrong with it for any length of time. Megan also was not sure who she was, where she was headed in life, and bounced around from topic to topic and situation to situation with no real sense of direction or purpose. I conceptualized this case in large part in identity development terms, and I explained to my supervisee that she had poor ego functioning and the conversation that ensued resulted in this blog.
To understand what I meant, let s start with defining the term ego . Although in everyday mrw language, ego means the extent to which one thinks highly of one's self, in psychology is means something different. It is an old term, being most popularly coined by Sigmund Freud in his tripartite mrw model of the mind (id, ego, superego, as it , I and above I ). Freud conceived of the ego as the psychological apparatus that regulated sexual and aggressive impulses and navigated the tension between those impulses and the demands and values of society.
A more modern conception that is certainly related to Freud s is to consider the ego as the self-consciousness mrw system. The self-consciousness system is the narrating portion of human consciousness that reflects on one s thoughts, feelings and actions and inhibits mrw or legitimizes them to one s self and to others. In this sense, ego is very similar mrw to what is meant by the term identity, and ego functioning refers to the components of the self-consciousness system that relate directly to mental health .
So, what are the elements that go into ego functioning? mrw This is a complicated question with no hard and fast answers, but here are six basic features that I consider crucial, especially as a clinician.
1. The degree of insight. Freud s famous dictum for psychotherapy was Where id was, let ego be. What he meant by that was the key to mental health was awareness of one s defenses, motives, and conflicts. Although history has shown Freud over-estimated the power of insight, it nevertheless is the case that the most basic function of the self-consciousness system is awareness of the processes that are influencing the individual. Individuals with high levels of insight know how they feel, what makes them tick, when and why they have conflicts, and what they need to feel fulfilled. Individuals with poor insight engage in more primitive psychological mrw defenses like denial, and either are clueless about who they are or try to convince themselves they are something they are not.
2. The degree of agency and self-directedness . Agentic individuals see themselves as able to control key aspects of their environment and guide their behavior with purpose. They are able to engage in self-directed behavior effectively guiding their actions toward goals across time, can manage impulses, and are resilient in the face of setbacks. In contrast, low agentic people have an external locus of control, experience life as happening to them rather than the reverse, have no direction, and often feel dependent on the whims of fate or the environment in terms of what happens to them. They also are impulsive responding to the needs of the moment rather than inhibiting their immediate desires for longer term goals.
3. The degree of self-esteem , acceptance, and compassion . Closely related to agency is the theme of esteem, which is the extent to which an individual respects and values themselves. Although self-esteem became an overblown construct in the 80s, it certainly is the case that feeling good about one s self, being able to accept one s faults or limitations, and having basic compassionate feelings toward one s self as a complicated being is extremely important. In contrast to self-discipline mrw , although many with low self-esteem have poor self-directedness, it is possible that an individual might exhibit much self-directness but may also be extremely self-critical, and lacking in acceptance and compassion, which is why the two are conceptually separated. Recent research has, appropriately in my view, emphasized self-compassion as a better way of fostering mental health than trying to directly raise self-esteem.
4. The degree of empathy with others. As James Mark Baldwin aptly stated, Ego and alter are born together . What he meant by that is our sense of self emerges in close relationship to our sense of others (and how they treat us). Indeed, because our selves exist within interdependent networks of