Psychotherapy and the modern ego

Abstract

The self, as understood by the educated and scientific world‐view of the modern west, is closely identified with ego‐functioning. This image is significantly narrowed in its exclusion of relational and transpersonal aspects of the person. The assumption that a person is essentially a bounded, self‐interested, adaptive system has some undesirable consequences for persons who so understand themselves. These consequences have increasingly reached clinical severity. Some traditional therapeutic goals and practices perpetuate, rather than challenge, aspects of the problematic modern self‐image. Ways are suggested in which psychotherapy can avoid these problems and help to restore a broader and more connected sense of self.