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Ego vs Identity - What's the difference?

ego | identity |

As nouns the difference between ego and identity

is that ego is (the self)the self, especially with a sense of self-importance while identity is sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.

ego

English

Noun

(en noun) (wikipedia ego)
  • (senseid)the self, especially with a sense of self-importance
  • * 1998 ,
  • When every thought absorbs your attention completely, when you are so identified with the voice in your head and the emotions that accompany it that you lose yourself in every thought and every emotion, then you are totally identified with form and therefore in the grip of ego'. ' Ego is a conglomeration of recurring thought forms and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of I, a sense of self.
  • (psychology, Freudian) the most central part of the mind, which mediates with one's surroundings
  • * 1954 , Calvin S. Hall, “A Primer of Freudian Psychology”
  • In the well adjusted person the ego is the executive of the personality and is governed by the reality principle.

    Derived terms

    * alter ego * (l) * egoism * egoist * egoistic * egoistical * egoistically * (l) * egotism * egotist * egotistic * egotistical * egotistically * ego trip * empirical ego * pure ego * superego * transcendental ego

    See also

    * id * superego

    identity

    Noun

    (identities)
  • Sameness, identicalness; the quality or fact of (several specified things) being the same.
  • * 1997 , Hydrothermal Vent Fauna'', in ''Advances in Marine Biology: The Biogeography of the Oceans , page 111:
  • The difference or character that marks off an individual from the rest of the same kind, selfhood.
  • *
  • A name or persona—the mask or appearance one presents to the world—by which one is known.
  • This criminal has taken on several identities .
  • Sense of who one is.
  • I've been through so many changes, I have no sense of identity .
    This nation has a strong identity .
  • (algebra, computing) Any function which maps all elements of its domain to themselves.
  • (algebra) An element of an algebraic structure which, when applied to another element under an operation in that structure, yields this, second element.
  • Synonyms

    * selfhood * identity function

    Derived terms

    * additive identity * identity card * identity of indiscernibles * identity theft * law of identity * left identity * mistaken identity * multiplicative identity * personal identity * quasiidentity * right identity