When life is calm, for most people, it is relatively easy to maintain equilibrium and equanimity. The challenge is holding steady when you’re buffeted by internal and external storms. In traditional psychoanalytic theory, the ego develops to mediate between inner and outer worlds, as an interface to manage our drives and desires, the limits we place on ourselves (as with harsh self-criticism), and reality, including other people.

A combination of learned and innate qualities, we are all born with a unique temperament and the capacity to be shaped by the environment through various life stages, from proverbial cradle to grave. Ego functions........

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