The Waning of Ego and Agency: Commentary on Togashi’s “Being Thrown Into the World Without Informed Consent”

Abstract

Koichi Togashi uses an evocative clinical illustration to push the Heideggerian notion of thrownness found in Hans Loewald into new territory. With the Japanese concept of amae, an emotion that takes the other person's love for granted, he expands our intersubjective understanding of early selfobject experience.

Keywords:

• amae
• consent
• ego
• thrownness

Notes

¹ I cannot remember when or where I heard Jonathan Lear report this, but it is also well-documented in Woessner (2011, p. 8, 1n 165).