Socionics :: Awakening the Ego

The ego block or 'self-realization block' of the psyche is critical to self-development and living a satisfying social and professional life. This is the part of the person that strives (consciously or unconsciously) to "go public" and bring benefit to a wider group of people. However, many people only use their strong psychic functions for theorizing without turning them into an instrument ("goods and services") for societal benefit. How does this happen, and how can it be changed?

What seems to trigger or impede this process most is the presence or absence of people in one's environment (especially in one's childhood and youth) who have an actual need for your ego block "products." Put simply — people who need you to be the way you are. Most often these are individuals of dual, partial dual, activation, and mirage types who have one or both of your ego functions in their super-id block.

The absence of such individuals can "distort" how one's strong functions develop. A common scenario is when the ego functions turn into a tool for fruitless competition — always demonstrating their prowess without ever producing anything of worth to other people. 'Worth' should be interpreted in the broadest sense. For example, creating satisfying experiences is of 'worth' to other people. So is providing actual physical, psychological, or any other kind of assistance. An example of demonstrating prowess without bringing benefit would be a hunter who keeps showing how well he can throw his spear without actually using it to hunt, or someone who uses his mental powers to amass knowledge without using it to address real problems in the world. However, creating a show of spear throwing tricks could provide beneficial entertainment to other people, as would involving other people in interesting discussions of topics one has studied thoroughly. There are many ways of providing "goods and services" to others using one's strengths.

What begins to produce an awareness of one's ego block strengths is when someone else is having difficulty in these areas and turns to you for help (or simply complains to you about their problems). If you are unaccustomed to using these functions for anything concrete, it may take some time to realize that the other person actually needs something specific and concrete. People who have not used their strengths to solve real problems before often react by talking abstractly around the issue instead of delving into the person's specific difficulty to find a creative solution. Below are two examples of problems and "good" and "bad" forms of assistance that get the idea across:

This 'technique' only works completely when it is an automatic reaction. Duals and activators are best at understanding each others' unspoken concerns. Other type combinations require quite a bit more conscious effort to achieve any results, and some combinations are hopelessly unable to understand each other's unspoken problems — much less assist in any meaningful way.

Having one or more persons around who regularly need help from your ego block is the first step to coming to an awareness of these strengths in yourself and turning them into something that can be but to use in society. These people will let you know when you've helped them by praising you for your insight, skill, knowledge, or understanding. If this praise is spontaneous and consistent, it might be enough to overcome the tendency to focus on strengthening your weak areas that others have criticized in the past that have made you feel inadequate. After all, using one's ego block functions is pleasurable and produces optimism and self-confidence. Why not turn it into a set of skills?

Again, the people who are most likely to provide spontaneous praise of your ego block strengths are those who have one or both of the same functions in their super-id block (duals, activators, semi-duals, mirage types, and request transmitters). Of these, duals provide the strongest positive programming — if you have rendered them real assistance.

Once praise for your strengths has become a pattern and you have recognized that you have something you enjoy giving that other people need (not just abstract information, but actual skills and "goods and services" that you can provide), you are on your way to social and professional fulfillment. Maybe there is some way of turning some of these skills into a profession? Maybe there is some way of working together with the people who need your strengths to create something new together? These are productive thoughts that come naturally to people who have found a favorable type environment and have overcome negative thought patterns they may have had.

01/22/2006 UDP
Interesting article. Thought provoking.

04/28/2006 Brian
Great article, I would love to see a follow-up that took this topic into greater depth - i.e. more specific direction on how to build one's strong functions

I am an ILE - I share the same dominant function as you, extraverted intuition. When I read this article it made me wonder if my intuition hasn't been fully developed and what steps I might take in order to build it up. If you have any insight or personal experiences in this area, please email me it would be greatly appreciated. Great site by the way it has kept me glued to my monitor for the past two hours!

05/16/2006 P
Very good article. In fact, I think this message is what my psychotherapist is trying to convei to me. Only your way of describing it makes so much more sense! ;-)

Don't you just love socionics!?

08/23/2006 meatburger
Wow!

This was a great article. Really gives you something to strive for. Can you explain to me how i can display

and

to the world?

seems like something very hard for others to pick up on, and

is something i am feeling internally. Any ideas?

08/29/2006 Author
(to meatburger) In a few words:

Develop your ability to give insightful and useful perspectives on people and social phenomena. Pay attention to people who seem to be asking for such a perspective, and conscientiously help them better understand people's motives and behavior. See that your interpretations and views address people's actual concerns, and be prepared to elucidate your ideas by giving examples and analogies. Learn to help people verbalize their feelings towards people and the reasons for these sentiments. Develop a broad and liberal view of people and relationships that encourages people to be themselves and find and develop their innate potential. Avoid judgmentalism and learn to help people see things from other people's perspective and appreciate different viewpoints. Develop an intriguing persona and a carefree and spontaneous, yet tactful and sensitive communication style. Seek out unusual life experience in the people around you and get them to tell you about it. Write down important insights and experiences in some form and try to understand how everything fits together. Display willingness to take time to try new and interesting things with people you find interesting and fun to be with.

10/06/2006 UDP
Re-reading it again now, I like it even more than the first time. VERY applicable, very relevant. Great article. I very much enjoy the practical applications of socionics, and this here is something that can be very useful in what I will be doing. Understanding how to "awaken the ego (block)" is critical for unleashing human potential, and utimately, for making the world a better place.

05/06/2007 Tory
I wanted to ask you about "developing the ego" but I fear that that question has been done to death. So I'll ask a different form of the question. In what situations would you consider optimal to developing the ego? What is the optimal way to develop the ego?

05/21/2007 Author
Tory, I think that most of all your ego functions should become the basis of your love life and your professional life. Things like hobbies are often based on all sorts of different functions and often serve to compensate for focusing so much on the strongest functions. For work, you shouldn't go look up some bogus list of "professions suitable for ____ type." But you need to find something you're relatively passionate about and find a niche that really engages your strongest functions. There are niches out there and things to do that are rightfully yours by virtue of your type and other innate qualities and interests; go out and find them! :) Often this involves dropping other things by the wayside, but you will only be happier in the long run. As for your private life, look for relationships where you are able to be yourself. Each person has a need for a certain kind of closeness where their greatest qualities are acknowledged and treasured. If you've been restricting yourself in life, I would say to go out and take what rightfully belongs to you, but to be sensitive to other people in the process. I doubt I've answered your question... :)