What Is Ego?
In my essay on Freud’s model of the human mind I said that his theory of ego makes no sense. Well, it continues to make no sense and I am fairly sure that it never will. Freud used the word “ego“ to describe a distinct part of the human mind — a part that’s obviously there and yet, when you try to define it you ether stumble like Freud did or express yourself in so vague of a manner that the only thing you accomplish, is annoy anyone who wants to understand it. Freud described it as, ”Coherent organization of mental processes.” And Jung, “As the focal point of consciousness.“ Do you see what I mean? The human mind is anything but coherent, people wouldn’t have mental breakdowns and inner conflicts every other Tuesday if it was. And when it comes to Jung, he’s just too vague.
To put it simply, the idea of the ego is a mess. The only way towards clarity, is to go to the source, to the place where the idea was born. As it so happens, I’ve stumbled on just the right case. The case we’re about to explore is the sort that Freud and his contemporaries would have ether herd of, or more likely, worked with in their own practice. It’s highly likely that cases of the same nature, contributed in the creation of the idea of ego. The case of Ann and Isabel shows what’s really meant by the word “ego”.
The story of Ann and Isabel
Ann was a 5 feet tall, timid but cultivated 29 year old woman, fifth child of a wealthy family of six. She worked as a sales-woman and she was good at her job. Introverted and slightly depressed would be the best way to describe the impression she would give off to a stranger. To our knowledge Ann led a fairly average life without tragic events, that is until her father committed suicide while she was in her early twenties. The death of her father was devastating. She stopped going out and could barely walk. That’s when Isabel came into her life.
Isabel was a Spanish woman, a singer by trade. She’s the opposite of Ann, she’s self-assured, articulated, energetic, well mannered, more dignified and serious than Ann. Ann’s timidity is substituted by almost egoism since Isabel isn’t interested in anything that doesn’t concern her, though she does help Ann. Isabel gets Ann out of her comfortable shell, she gets her involved in social events. She got her to sing and she even got her into a love affair. But I am getting ahead of myself. Before we continue with the story, there’s one thing I should mention — Ann and Isabel is the same person.The split of Ann
Ann was a patient of Charles E. Cory — an associate professor of philosophy from the University of Washington back in 1916. In his report — ”A Divided Self” he called his subjects A and B. I substituted Ann for A and Isabel for B. Ann had a dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder and even farther back — multiple ego disorder. Isabel was a disassociated part of Ann’s mind. Cases of dissociation were more common during the late 19th century and early 20th or at least one gets such an impression since reports of cases were common. What makes the case of Ann special is the aspect of mutual awareness. Usually the original personality isn’t fully aware of the newcomer. But Ann is perfectly aware of Isabel and Isabel is just as aware of Ann.
The Split of Ann
It’s quite clear that the death of Ann’s father was the direct cause of the emergence of Isabel. The timing, the psychological effect it had on her, she reportedly could hardly walk and she began to experience hallucinations. Additionally Isabel stated to Charles that she gained partial control after Ann found out about her father’s suicide. Though there’s something that leaves me unsatisfied in the cause of the split of her mind. Of course, the death of her father was the direct cause but there’s many woman at her age that have lost their fathers but almost none of them lose control to a different part of themselves. Why is Ann different?
Charles treated Ann for 3 years and in this period he inquired into Ann’s childhood and life up to the point of division. Charles found multiple precursors to Ann’s mental instability. She had, “moods of extreme vanity and inexplicable bits of conduct. Such as without intention getting out of bed and going through weird dances.” Getting mood swings and impulsive action is a far way away of losing control over your own body. There has to be something more significant. The missing link might be her relationship with sex. Ann was a part of a convent, it’s not stated when she became part of one but she was in one when her father killed himself. In the convent and at home her, at that time, highly sexual nature was repressed. Repressed so much so, that she didn’t even see herself as a sexual creature.
If I had to explain why a part of Ann dispassionate then I would put her open personality as a risk factor, the death of her father as a the final drop in the bucket and the extreme sexual repression as the primary cause of Ann’s split. The funny thing about repression is that the more you repress something the more force it gathers. As Carl Gustav Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Only in this case Ann calls her Isabel.
The Birth of Isabel
Ann remembers the exact moment she became aware of Isabel and she describes it as follows,
“One evening while alone in the house I was seated at the piano, and it seemed like something said to me, ‘take a deep breath,’ and a sound of singing came from me that I had never heard before, and it frightened me. Just before the song I shuddered as if something had possession of me. I went to the kitchen to get a drink then, and I asked mentally who that was that sang, and I got the name — — — .”
It took few weeks more for Isabel, as she put’s it, “to get completely out.” Isabel herself believes that she’s a reincarnated spirit that lived and died long time ago. When I described Isabel, I stated that she’s Spanish and a singer by trade. I described her self-image. In the land of reality things are different. She’s defiantly not a reincarnated spirit, nor a Spanish woman, nor she’s a singer by trade.
She’s not a reincarnated spirit. If she truly was, then It would be easy to gather details that only the dead spirit would know and then check whether it fits the facts. Nothing of the sort was provided. She likes dishes that she considers to be Spanish (even if they aren’t in reality), she speaks English with a Spanish accent though she doesn’t really speak Spanish, she speaks Spanish-ish language. Here’s a piece written by Isabel,
“El spir desempenarsa Maria Rozell Rosa si exusadosa los almos los limasa los immundosa Palaisa Rayals Madrid Espana pie none dusa duer Reyos Ferdinando III si del hombri carcela mito De Grandoza espio del Reyos Ferdinando III los padre houerta el santa virginus bella almos fuami del pico si questa monos si cruir v los mendato spirato del prego duosa fuar cristes felami Reynos Carlos Naples Italy Carnaval des bella in carles aquellas Romitas Ferdinando III. castilliuanos reyos immortalidade almos del maria Rosa los spir anosa del uberia costa quelle di si amicos zeus romania alesticad pon ohe nome fluer yoso dente quami.”
Obviously a reincarnated Spanish woman would speak fluent Spanish. The source of Isabel’s “Spanish“ was probably obtained trough unconscious learning from some of Ann’s classmates which were from Mexico and spoke Spanish to each other. Isabel’s self proclaimed Spanish decent is a mental construct. She’s not a singer by trade ether, she just likes to sing. As she said, “my passionate nature played havoc with many a lover.” It’s easy to imagine her using singing to attract attention from men and play havoc in their lives.
There’s a common thread that goes trough all of Isabel’s character — sexuality. Her reincarnated spirit part of the story doesn’t seam to fit in anywhere unless you look at Isabel mythological. If we start with the assumption that Isabel is representative of Ann’s spirit of sexuality then her self-proclaimed reincarnation makes sense. The spirit of female sexuality is a spirit that is reborn in every woman, in that sense she’s a reincarnated spirit. It’s a mythological way of seeing Isabel but if you’re going to try to figure out the inside view of the human mind, you better get comfortable with mythology. Isabel is Spanish because Spanish culture is more sexual than the one in Washington. Once again her singing nature is picked to make her more sexual. Additionally Ann states that Isabel thinks of nothing but sex which is confirmed by Charles. Isabel sees herself as “possessing all the feminine charms.” Everything in Isabel points to sexuality therefor it’s safe to say that Isabel is Ann’s sexuality split from the total self.
The Dance Between Ann and Isabel
As all human beings Ann has a sexual side to her. What most people don’t have is the ability to speak to a personified version of it. What Charles found out by talking to Isabel, while Ann was under hypnosis, is that she was there, aware below the threshold of action for many years even before she “came out“. She described her existence before the split as, “looking trough a window.” She couldn’t act but she could observe the world and make Ann feel a certain way. Wouldn’t that be a good way to get Ann into a love affair?
Ann met a man — Mr. X for whom she felt a “strange fascination”. Her interest in Mr. X was so intense that she developed a relationship with him. Ann lead and still leads a secluded life. Meeting new people is fairly unusual to her, creating a relationship with one — even more unusual, that new person being a man for whom she has feeling for is straight out of her character. But it isn’t out of Isabel’s. Mr. X was of Spanish decent and many years her senior, therefor — Isabel’s type. Charles is sparse on details of this relationship, we don’t know how it developed or how it ended, if it did. What we do know is the role Isabel played — she was the source of the desire. The blind, unconcerned, unending desire. Isabel later admitted that the whole affair was her doing, she was the one who was attracted to Mr.X, she made Ann feel “strange fascination”. The only way Ann could satisfy her feelings was to act them out which lead to the affair.
Once Isabel gained control, once she was born as a person her influence became that much larger. She could take complete control and she often did when Ann was detached. What makes thing more interesting is that Isabel doesn’t even need to take control in order to be in control. For example, Ann attended a diner against Isabel’s wishes. Usually she would enjoy it but this time she found herself inexplicably unsatisfied with things and wishing she was somewhere else. It was Isabel who made her feel discontent with the dinner while Ann herself was helpless to feel any different.
The outcome of Isabel splitting from Ann is Ann becoming pretty much unsexed. Ann has lost her sexual desire which she very much prefers. Though things aren’t as simple. As I noted previously Isabel’s emotional state leeches over to Ann. When it comes to sexual desire, Isabel can make her feel it at her own discretion. Isabel uses her ability to motivate action from Ann and the direction tends to be in the direction of Isabel’s interest — sex.
The relationship between Ann and Isabel has developed. It has changed from that of childlike - my way or the highway, to that of a relationship between grown people where there is a back and forth discussion and the final solution tends to be a compromise. Isabel has made concessions in order to enable Ann to sing. The switch of the driving personality is negotiated. The split has made Ann more stable and less nervous. In general the relationship between Ann and Isabel has become constructive instead of destructive as it was before the split.
Ego Revealed
The case of Ann makes one wounder what classifies as a mental disease. Ann’s life became better after the split. Before the split Ann was incapable of mediating between her sexual side and her highly repressive environment. She failed to integrate her sexual side in her total self and the unintegrated part began an unintegrated existence. Emergence of Isabel created additional structure which helped the total self reach a better outcome.
The emergence and development of Isabel is what points to the nature of ego. When Isabel “came out” her way of acting was that of demanding her desires to come true, just like small children do, just as she did before she “came out“. As she aged, she matured and developed an ability to regulate her wishes with the demands of the environment. She developed an ego.
Ann and Isabel have the same body — the same ears, eyes, hands, brains, sensations but somehow they perceive a different world with each having different thought’s and feelings. The only logical answer is that there has to be some sort of additional structure which is involved in the judgment of the perceived. Ego is the idea which represents this structure. Ego designates the existence of a character in ones mind who’s role is to mediate between all of the forces within his own mind and the external world. Failure to do so, leads to a fragmentation of the self if repression is you’re cup of tea. On the other hand, if you indulge too much in your passions then there can be repercussions from the external world, just as severe as from within. Ego is the part of the mind that has to walk a tight rope and avoid falling ether to one or the other side.
