A Different Idea of Ego Structure

Note; this is my own viewpoint of ego, not the accepted view of what ego means based from Freud's teachings.

“Ego is self and by itself is neutral. Our agency, our ability to make choices, directs our ego one way or the other with every choice we make.”

I see pride as a better interpretation of how others tend to speak of ego. Yet, as fundamentally neutral I see it going either way...positive or negative. 

Negative being: destructive, judgemental, betrayal, selfishly detrimental to others, etc

Positive being: empowering, unconditionally loving, caring, humbly confident, safely vulnerable, serving that uplifts all involved (including self), unreciprocated charity, etc.

There are so many ways to guide our ego but one way builds strong cultures and the other creates wars. Don't get me wrong, we need both sides of ego to some extent. How would we know about the one without the other? 

When we make choices based on our own needs, it is often said to be ego based, as if our needs are always based in selfishness to the detriment of others. When we serve or help it is often said we do it to feel better about ourselves. No wonder we try to avoid our ego, there is no way to find balance according to society. We actually need to choose both positive and negative actions depending on our circumstances.

However, it isn't an even swap. Positive and negative don't work equally like in the Yin/Yang symbol. That is a beautiful way to show how we need to include both in order to balance our lives. However, to truly balance, we humans actually need more positive than negative.

Funny how that works.