In an interview with Jungian psychoanalyst and scholar James Hollis, WIE's Amy Edelstein explores the developmental and spiritual role of the ego according to the father of analytical psychology, C.G. Jung.

Carl Jung is perhaps best known for his exploration of the human psyche through dreams, art, myth, religious experience, and philosophy. His original conceptions of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and synchronicity have become pillars of modern, secular spirituality (not to mention the New Age). But Jung was first and foremost a pioneering psychologist, and his investigations and theories about the ego are no less compelling than those of his famous mentor and colleague, Sigmund Freud. But where Freud saw the ego as a repository of repressed fears and negative feelings, Jung saw it as a well of deep significance both positive and negative, a source of incapacitating neuroses and also brilliant creativity—even spirituality. Hollis defines these many faces of the ego, delving into the ways ego can serve the spiritual quest or hinder it, support the vertical development of the individual or stymie profound personal evolution. Given that the ego is not only an object of psychological fascination in the West but is also the arch nemesis of enlightenment in the East, this conversation is required listening for all sincere seekers on the spiritual path today.

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