The Ego Factors In Surrender In Alcoholism

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.silkworth.net/tiebout/tiebout_egofactors.html

Certain aspects of the infant's psyche may be usefully examined. There are three factors which should receive mention. The first is, as Freud observed in his priceless phrase "His Majesty the Baby," that the infant is born ruler of all he surveys. He comes from the Nirvana of the womb, where he is usually the sole occupant, and he clings to that omnipotence with an innocence, yet determination, which baffles parent after parent. The second, stemming directly from the monarch within, is that the infant tolerates frustration poorly and lets the world know it readily. The third significant aspect of the child's original psyche is its tendency to do everything in a hurry. Observe youngsters on the beach: they run rather than walk. Observe them coming on a visit: the younger ones tear from the car while their elder siblings adopt a more leisurely pace. The three-year-olds, and more so the twos, cannot engage in play requiring long periods of concentration. Whatever they are doing must be done quickly. As the same children age, they gradually become able to stick to one activity for longer times.

Thus at the start of life the psyche (1) assumes its own omnipotence, (2) cannot accept frustrations and (3) functions at a tempo allegretto with a good deal of staccato and vivace thrown in.

Now the question is, "If the infantile psyche persists into adult life, how will its presence be manifested?"

[conscious evolution]

1. Lao Tsu figured it out centuries ago

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there.

That is from the Hua Hu Ching.The Hua Hu,along with his other bookDao De Ching,were very important to my recovery process.More so then the Big book.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. The Western study of self is so very, very young

and shall only reinvent the wheel, over and over, yet it is so important that we still do so. Due to the ego directly learning and outgrowing itself!

Thank you for the quote; I note much in the Big Book from various traditions I've encountered, and although step 11 points the direction, Lao Tzu names it fully. This is true in Zen and other areas of study. "Be quick to see where religious people are right, and make use of it", "We know that we know only a little" :) Meetings would be much more interesting to me if they centered on such wisdom...

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. I'd just been thinking about Aldous Huxley's beautiful book on

comparative religion, called The Perennial Philosophy.

An Eastern sage, quite probably Loa Tsu, states that anger requires your consent. If you act as if the you are not there, or don't exist, any slight or insult must miss its mark. I believe he expressed it in a kind of parable about a man in a boat, but I can't remember the details, unfortunately.

I was also reminded of another, a Christian take, specifically again, on the subject of insults, etc, but again with wider application, as indicated in your quotation, conscious evolution. A spiritual writer said that if you hear that someone said something unpleasant about you, ask yourself how many times you have done the same with regard to others. More generally, think along the lines that your depression is not very unjust, it's fitting, even if you can't think why! It will soon pass over you. Only patience - derived from "suffering", also in the sense of "allowing" - is needed.

[NMDemDist2]

3. I was always struck by the idea I heard in many a meeting

whatever age you started drinking is where your emotional age got stuck.

seemed to hold some water IME

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Yep.

[Kajsa]

7. I've heard that too, AZ Dem.

That explains a lot of my behavior!

:-)

[Iggo]

6. Ouch!

I hurts us when we uses our brain to thinks about our brain!

It hurts us!

[Kajsa]

8. Peake, I'm going to try to answer that last question.

"If the infantile psyche persists into adult life, how will its presence be manifested?"

--- a type 'A' personality?

ie. " I wanted it done yesterday!"