The ego is constituted by resisting the urge to mimic.
Evidence
All devotion and all deflection has a touch of mimicry about it. The ego has been formed in resistance to this mimicry. In the constitution of the ego reflective mimesis becomes controlled reflection. “Recognition in the concept,” the absorption of the different by the same, takes the place of physical adaptation to nature. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 139
Categorization
- DEFINE: Lays out the core Freudo-Marxist claim that ego formation equals the suppression of mimesis into abstract conceptualization.
- XREF: connects to: The ego is built on the same self-deception as ritual sacrifice — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 60; Thought requires deliberate self-distancing because reality resists being understood directly; Dasein must resist the sway of an impersonal conformity force to live authentically. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 264
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: The ego is built on the same self-deception as ritual sacrifice — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 60; Thought requires deliberate self-distancing because reality resists being understood directly; Dasein must resist the sway of an impersonal conformity force to live authentically. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 264