Ego is Opposite of Narcissism: Ego Functions 

I'm glad you cleared these functions further. The synthetic function was very useful to me. Thank you.

thank you for being you Professor Sam Vaknin. I've learned so much about myself and others.

Thank you, Professor Vaknin! You're describing in details what I've been experiencing (suffered from) a loved one for years. I keep reminding him: fact check/reality check before you assert or don't fire before you aim etc. But he just ignores me and keeps on acting as if nothing happened etc. You have nailed this in such clear manner and they are life saving!

The movie Apocolypto. I know it’s not based on reality lol but imo it’s a great example of the “ego functioning properly.” A great example of a very high functioning human being having to fight for his life vs a bunch of violent psychopaths. Still he was able to escape because of his strength, intelligence, will to return to his loved ones and also a bit of luck. He is a beast but he is not an animal. They even showed this in a way when they turned him into a black panther in the end when he was covered in mud. At least this is what that symbolized to me.

I believe the ego that mystics speak of isn't the same as the one in psychology - there are many a mystics who have been known to be enlightened or awake or however you want to call it, with their ego functions as such seemingly perfectly intact, them being perfectly capable of reality checking, being able to discern inside from outside in order to not project, etc. In spiritual circles there's even a name for when loss of ego functions is mistaken for higher states of consciousness - spiritual bypass. But sure, many people seeking out gurus struggle in their own ways, some people who seem themselves as empaths really just project a bunch of stuff and are quite narcissistic, etc.

The ego creates new defense mechanisms object bounded defenses, And if individual is perfectionist and there's a fight toward that perfectionism , ego creates objective processing mechanism under duress, and that's the possibility, highly dependent on the situation, such as brainwashing, firewalling against repression,

This is a great video, I like the different outlook

I guess the thing is we humans are evolved to survive not just analyze reality so, we just do the confirmation bias and similar cognitive dissonances for that. Maybe the ego do the confirmation bias because it knows that too much information will stress it too much and will cause it to break down.

Love your knowledge and wisdom regarding the psyche..."can an ego be created in someone with narrcissism.In other words,can the object that the narcissist has personified create within itself an ego.Or can an ego be created out of it.Thank you for your vids..very helpful

Wonderful!, thank you :)

It's a bloody mess about this topic (not only) on RU-vid😳

Thank you!

Thank you so much for this highly educational and brilliant video on Ego Functions and their relationship to personal agency, Dr Vaknin. I have picked up some pearls of information that will help me a lot. ❤ Is it possible to free an ego that is completely repressed by the 'bad object'.. so much so that object relations are very difficult?

I've thought narcissism to be like some psychotic egoism as they seem extremely selfish, only out for themselves in every way to the point of being psychotic, so this is a very different view from that.. 🤔

Thank you, Dr. Vaknin. How does one who has undergone ego dissolution, been programmed, if I am understanding you correctly, to be narcisstic, at the hands of a coach, guru, religious leader, or even a sub-culture, family member, etc, recover and build one's ego back again?

So basically is the narcissistic just one uncontrolled ID?

Hello sam, thank you for the great content you are making. Do you not think that the narcissistic has his ID functions disabled too and the false self is in response to having lost those primitive desires?

What if you are in a relationship that activates trauma and you behave in ways that are in direct conflict with who you know yourself to be. For instance, if you are in a relationship with a narcissist or someone with BPD who often project onto you their negative traits. Then spend time trying to prove that you are not that way to the person who has activated said trauma. Yet in other relationships and situations that doesn't happen. Would you say that it's still a personality disorder? Wouldn't a cluster B have this issue in all aspects of their life?

Is it fair to infer sustained belief in one's being the master of one's own destiny necessitates ego death?

oh jeez. i think my psyche was built by Boeing.