Egoic Consciousness - Essay Example

Egoic consciousness. INTRODUCTION: Body image is the chief criterion of human identification. Attitudes, behaviors and characters are still the add on qualities of identification although striving for developments in these area are the goal of human life. Egoic consciousness is reflective in nature. One identifies himself / herself through his/her attitudes, behaviors and characters as reflected from others. Even sensory identifications are also established only in reflective mode. The physical image of a self is reflected in mirror and is got reinforced or reaffirmed or modified by the comment and suggestions of others; one’s actions are identified in the way how they are accepted or recognized by others. The voice of the self and its accent or modulations are never identified in the manner identical to that of identifying others’ voice. The voice of self is usually identified by self in the shape of idea or concept alone. The acoustic factor of sound is negligibly small while identifying ones own voice. Thus body image is also a reflected consciousness of the self, making narcissism a paradigm of self-consciousness. Marcus West (2004, p521-551) describes consciousness not seen as identical with ego, but moves between the mode of functioning of ego and that of emotional core. He explains such movement as shifting in and out of states where projective identification predominates.(Marcus West, 2004). James Mark Baldwin (2000, p507) (James Mark Baldwin, 2007) points out that an individuals self-thought depends on an exercise of two-fold imitative function in which the subjective understanding of the social copy is reached by imitation and the interpretations are confirmed by another act of imitation by which the self thoughts are ejectively read into the persons of others. Narcissism is further explained by Luigi Aversa G. et al (2004, p553-568) to have facilitated the creation of a relationship between the ego and the Self through the mediation of the imagined world and through the prospective value of images. ( Luigi. G. Aversa et al, 2004) PART – A: ASPECTS OF EGOIC CONSCIOUSNESS: Consciousness generally refers to our ongoing awareness of our own thoughts, feelings, sensations and our very existence. (Stephen M. Kosslyn, 2001, p130). Crick and Koch (1998, p97-107) highlighted that attention enriched consciousness, although attention is not necessary for it. (Crick F, 1998 cited in Stephen M Kosslyn 2001) The current state of egoic consciousness that is being construed as narcissism can be explained via cognitive dissonance and resultant self-perception theory. Cognitive dissonance arises whenever an attitude and behavior or two attitudes are inconsistent. The impact of such cognitive dissonance is often an accompanying arousal at a heightened level. (Losch M. and Cacioppo J. 1990, p289-304). The uncomfortable and indeed annoying state caused by cognitive dissonance is attempted to be reduced by using direct or indirect strategies. Direct strategies comprise changing our attitudes or behavior. Indirect strategies involve trying to feel good about ourselves in other areas of life. While direct strategies actually minimize the discomfort arising out of cognitive dissonance, indirect strategies usually make us veer away from the goal of decreasing the arousal impact. The influence of such self-perception acts upon when we do not have any strong feelings or motivations, which would help us understand our behavior. Thus it can be believed strongly that our deficient understanding of our own self in general and our behavior in particular has manifested as narcissism. In other words, narcissism is a stage at which the human race is stranded in its journey towards self-actualization. About Narcissism and use of women as advertising models: However, narcissism has its impact, usually in an under developed format on human self. It often brings along with it psychological malfunctioning like aggression, low-self esteem and threatened egotism. Roy Baumeister. F et al (2000, p26-29) envisages that narcissism and unstable self esteem are most effective at predicting aggression. The team ascribes threatened egotism to low self esteem in which aggression is resorted to as a defending mechanism being used as a tool to subdue the discrediting or undermining views against ones own assumed esteem. (Roy F Baumeister et al, 2000) A further research by the team of Lisa M Penney and Paul E Spector (2002, p126-134) hypothesized that narcissism would relate to trait anger, job constraints and Counter Productive Behavior (CWB) and also that narcissism and CWB would be mediated by anger. (Lisa M Penney & Paul E Spector , 2002) The relationship between narcissism and self-concept clarity is still lucidly explained by Tanja S Stucke & Siegfried L Sporer (2002, p509-532). They emphasize that narcissism and self-concept clarity are significant predictors of negative emotions and aggression after failure. With this finding they hypothesize that high narcissists with low self-concept clarity react with anger and aggression after failure while less narcissistic individuals with high self-concept clarity reveal feelings of depression and no aggression. They have derived at a conclusion that aggression is always directed towards the source of the ego-threatening feedback. (Tanja S Stucke et al, 2002) The above research findings talk about aggression and angry against whom? Unidentified faceless enemies are underlying in the debate. Gordon’s idea of the need for enemies to establish the identity is well going along with the narcissistic views. Coline Covington (2005, p35-40) assumes that splits in the course of institutional development, within the profession and political influences are out of mutual attraction among narcissistically disturbed individuals within a profession. (Coline Covington, 2005, p35-40) Narcissism is generally and most frequently attributed to men only. The feminine part of narcissism is consequently construed as some asymmetrical and intersecting problems of masculine narcissism. Illene Philipson (1985, p213-228) emphasizes the gender bias of narcissism must be properly recognized before affording any etio-logical explanations of the narcissistic personality. (Ilene Philipson, 1985) Thus narcissism is collectively and socially understood in a deformed status with a sort of inherent antagonism or disgust against anything other than the self. The result is that mutual conflicts between the only available two sexes erupt. Freudian theory of penile envy in girls and Oedipus complex in boys explain to some extent the nature of the current understanding of narcissism and its impact on society as a whole. I use the term ‘deformed’ because a natural urge for mutual attraction between the two sexes is also explained with the help of these theories of Sigmund Freud making it impossible to attain equilibrium in the understanding of narcissism. Use of women as the models in advertisements is one among the impact of this narcissistic approach. In as much as the business world, it is still conceived as a filed of men. The business approaches are considered masculine despite several women now a days throng the business world. Advertisements are the chief promoting engines in a business. The key role of advertisements is to persuade the consumers, listeners and readers. Persuasion is an attempt to change the attitude of people. “An attractive persuader is more likely to change attitudes than an unattractive one” (Kiesler & Kiesler, 1969 cited in Stephen M Kosslyn, 2001, p560). When we see the nature of manly business world in the light of the above discussed narcissistic approach of men, we can understand why women are used as objects of attraction in advertisements. The techniques and dictatorship models of media advertisements are further elaborated by Mander Jerry in Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. The eight conditions for flowering the autocracy as envisaged in the book, namely 1. Elimination of personal knowledge. 2. Elimination of points of comparison. 3. Separation of people from each other. 4. Encouraging mental experiences at the expense of sensory experiences. 5. Occupying the mind. 6. Encouraging the drug use. 7. Centralizing knowledge and information & 8. Redefining happiness in terms of increasingly unrooted philosophy. are typically crude, creating a sort of fear in the minds of readers and listeners. Such creation of fear in the minds of listeners makes the way clear for the advertisers to bring about a positive out come for their business. (Leventhal G.S, 1965, p20-29) PART – B; POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY: Sigmund Freud’s explanation that the process and core of every human development centres on a predetermined role of sex is both credited and refuted by many researchers who followed him. But even the refuting researchers were unable to place a strong and vivid argument in their rejection in place of Freud’s views on sex. This sort of inability to explain a complex nature of self, ego and super ego is found to have its impact on psychotherapy and related clinical aspirations. Body image is an issue of concern in many societies. Whether people live to eat or eat to live, the chief focus is body image. Eating disorders are the predictors of problems concerning self-esteem. As stated already, attitudes, behaviors and characters are still in the mode of add on qualities of self-identification. This happens especially during the younger stage of human life, during when growth of physique and psyche is subjected to a competing development. Attainment of equilibrium in the growth of psyche and physique is possible only with a very few population of balanced growth. Several factors such as social pressure, economic constraints, cultural obligations, political intrusions and capability of individual tolerance or intolerance have their impact on balanced growth. The result is that young generation is concerned more either with physical development or mental development alone. As far as body image is concerned, women are relatively concerned more about their physique than men but the spell of their attention on their body image is small. Once they feel they are acceptable to men or they feel they have attained their complete capability, they begin to loose interest on their body image. The vigor with which they focus on their physical image prior to either marriage or attracting man of their choice is drastically reduced in the aftermath. Their biological passiveness of this kind can be ascribed to their endurance towards using women as objects of attraction in advertisements. Anorexia nervosa or bulimia is found to have affected mainly girls. Although it is considered to be an illness related with eating disorders, it is also encompassing their emotional and self-esteem issues. Interpretation or conceptualization of the bodily image forms the core of anorexia. Hence therapeutic consultants find it a hard way to treat anorexia and bulimia, as they need complete cooperation from the patients not only in inclination towards recuperation but also in faith in their own self. Self-esteem is closely related to body image in practice. Since in the realization of Self mankind is yet to cross several thousands of miles, the self-esteem is quite natural to be subjected to constantly fluctuating between high and low levels. Whenever low self-esteem predominates, treatment along with therapeutic intervention becomes necessary. In this endeavor of minimizing low self-esteem, we have firstly to identify the forms of low self-esteem. People with low self-esteem act like either imposter or rebel or loser. Whatever be the shape or form of an individual with low self-esteem, the result is failure in social interaction, psychological depression, and non-productivity in academic and professional fields leading ultimately to self-destructive behavior. The first step to overcome low self-esteem is to challenge the negative voices emanating from one’s inside. This will sow a seed for self-confidence, which would become a very strong hold in life to come. Secondly, retrieving help and advice from others would canalize ones skill to judge and estimate others capability. This type of judging others capability can be developed into managerial competency. CONCLUSION: Knowledge is bliss. Knowledge of self is glory. To know ones own self, it is obligatory to know others also, because no one is alone. This is the chief hymn in human life. Identifying ones self is a part of the self-knowledge and is not the end. Self-actualization and self-realization can be attained after rigorous practice alone. After identifying one’s self with the bodily image, next step of identifying attitudes and characters must necessarily occupy the course of life. Sigmund Freud’s way of assigning a sexual meaning to every events of human life span has been refuted by many theorists who followed him. Even some ardent followers of Freud like Alfred Adler were going away with the views of Freud de-emphasizing sex in favor of the sources of unconscious conflicts. However, Freud’s ideologies could not altogether be rejected as invalid. This is the strength of Freud’s interpretations. His approach towards narcissism is still unable to be diluted by the findings of the researches that followed. The concept of id, ego and super ego is yet to be analyzed and understood in depth. The present position of self consciousness is in midway between id and ego. Freud’s contention that attaining perfect equilibrium in the stage of ego alone would pave way to the attainment of super ego can never be challenged in any manner. Aggressive utterance of words expressing the genital organs during emotional outburst especially anger and violence is still the sign of under development in our evolution. Creation of Humans in nature is just a milestone of the biological development in the evolution. To Know the Self knowing others is a must. Nature has biologically paved way for such knowledge by enabling human race alone to copulate among the partners/mates face-to-face. The stagnation in the narcissistic awareness of human beings indicates thousands of miles to go. Egoic consciousness is just a stage of evolution in which identification of the Self predominates. On analyzing Abraham Maslow’s (1970) need theory and perceiving the current state of human evolution in the light of that theory we can understand that the theory delineates clearly where the human race still is. In his view people who attained the self-actualization position were very few including Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Mahathma Gandhi. Even the attainment of self-actualization is the top most position in self-identification stage only. Self-realization is far high to reach. The current state of self-identification restricted to mere narcissism and body image is just immediate after the primitive stage of self-consciousness, in which only the appetites of the self was the focus. It is not that one should renounce from the bodily needs and identities but should transcend from bodily realm of awareness and go higher. To put it in simpler words, we may need portraits (may be imaginary) of Jesus for identification purpose, but the very utterance or usage of the name Jesus brings along with it a great sense of Remission, Love and Peace. Progression towards self-realization must be in a similar vain where from one can perceive his/her ‘ego’ from atop the pinnacle. * * * * * * * * * * Reference list— Coline Covington (2005) Why we cant get along, Journal of Analytical Psychology Vol.50, Issue No.1, p35–40 Crick F, and Koch C (1998) Consciousness and Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, 8, p97-107 cited in Stephen M Kosslyn, 2001, p130, “Psychology: The Brain, The People, the World”, Allyn and Bacon, Boston Ilene Philipson (1985) GENDER AND NARCISSISM, Psychology of Women Quarterly Vol.9, Issue No. 2, p213–228 James Mark Baldwin (2007) p507, Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development: A Study in Social Psychology, Adamant Publishers, ISBN 13:9781402181597 Kiesler C.A & Kiesler S.B (1969) Conformity. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley cited in Stephen M Kosslyn, 2001, p560, Psychology: The Brain, The People, the World, Allyn and Bacon, Boston Leventhal G.S, Singer R, and Jones S (1965) The effects of fear and specificity of recommendation upon attitudes and behaviors, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, p20-29 Lisa M Penney & Paul E Spector (2002) Narcissism and Counterproductive Work Behavior: Do Bigger Egos Mean Bigger Problems? International Journal of Selection and Assessment Vol.10, Issue No.1&2, p126–134 Losch M. and Cacioppo J. (1990) Cognitive dissonance may enhance sympathetic tonis, but attitudes are changed to reduce negative effect rather than arousal, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 26, p289-304 Luigi. G. Aversa, Vittoria Baldieri, Maria Ilena Marozza (2004) The mythic function of narcissism, Journal of Analytical Psychology Vol.49, Issue No.4, p553–568 Marcus West (2004) Identity, narcissism and the emotional core Journal of Analytical Psychology Vol.49, Issue No.4, p521–551 Maslow A.H (1970) Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed, Harper and Row, New York. Roy F Baumeister, Brad J Bushman, W. Keith Campbell (2000) Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Aggression: Does Violence Result From Low Self-Esteem or From Threatened Egotism? Current Directions in Psychological Science Vol.9, Issue No.1, p26–29 Stephen M. Kosslyn & Robin S. Rosenberg (2001) Psychology: The Brain, the Person and the World, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp 130 Tanja S Stucke, Siegfried L Sporer (2002) When a Grandiose Self-Image Is Threatened: Narcissism and Self-Concept Clarity as Predictors of Negative Emotions and Aggression Following Ego-Threat, Journal of Personality Vol.70, Issue No.4, p509–532. Read More