Ego

Egocentrism is characterized by preoccupation with one’s own internal world. Whereas Egotism is slightly more inclusive of slaves; it means placing oneself at the core of one’s world with no concern for others, including those loved or considered as “close,” in any other terms except those set by the egotist.

They are both simply extreme versions of plain old fashioned selfishness which involves placing concern with oneself or one’s own interests above the well-being or interests of others.

A child automatically feels at the centre of its own universe because, quite frankly, it is. But when children are loved and where they feel secure, they get to trust the world around them. As they grow and mature in a trusting environment they expand their circle of trust away from their ‘ego’ core. They also have a greater chance of learning the ineffectiveness of acting out of self interest at all times – there is a positive feedback loop which effectively expands their ego to include others.

Egotists and other poor souls with clinical labels are simply at one end of a continuous spectrum of people. Due to a conflict of parenting and personality their egos simply never get a chance to tour beyond their epidermis.

The rest of us are more or less selfish, and typically we have our strengths in areas where we have learned to be effective and less selfish, and then we have other areas where the feedback loop has never kicked in.

And as we mature we build ramshackle scaffoldings that prop up our favourite dodgy self-centred behaviours. We call these addictions. These remain in place all our lives unless some catastrophe comes along and blows the whole construct away and we become helpless children again.