Your Name is the First Thing That Creates Your Ego

🧶 Tags:: #Fleeting_Notes
2024-09-14 - 15:18

Your name plays a significant role in shaping your identity because it's often the first thing we associate with ourselves. It's a tool society uses to differentiate us from others, and over time we internalize that label as part of our personal narrative. When you're called by your name, it instantly draws attention to you as an individual, again reinforcing a sense of self.

Now, imagine if you didn’t have a name. Without that specific identifier, you'd lose a major reference point for your individual identity. This could lead to a more fluid sense of self, where you don't see yourself as distinctly separate from others. In turn, this may reduce the tendency to form a strong ego, which thrives on distinctions and separations, like "this is me, and this is not me."

Names often contribute to ego creation because they personalize experiences. When we achieve something or feel hurt, we associate those experiences directly with ourselves, because they happened to "us"—to the named self.

This creates a stronger attachment to identity and can foster an inflated sense of importance or ego. Without such an attachment, we might see our experiences more impersonally, reducing the need to guard or enhance the ego.