The ego is itself a product of projection, not its origin

Evidence

Between the true object and the undisputed data of the senses, between within and without, there is a gulf which the subject must bridge at his own risk. In order to reflect the thing as it is, the subject must return to it more than he receives from it. The subject creates the world outside himself from the traces which it leaves in his senses: the unity of the thing in its manifold characteristics and states; and he therefore constitutes the `I’ retrospectively by learning to grant a synthetic unity not only to the external impressions, but to the internal impressions which gradually separate off from them. The real ego is the most recent constant product of projection. In a process which could only be completed historically with the developed powers of the human physiological constitution, it developed as a unified and at the same time eccentric function. Even as an independently objectified ego, it is only equivalent to the significance of the world of objects for it. The inner depth of the subject consists in nothing other than the delicacy and wealth of the external world of perceptions. If the links are broken, the ego calcifies. If it proceeds positivistically, merely recording given facts without giving anything in return, it shrinks to a point; and if it idealistically creates the world from its own groundless basis, it plays itself out in dull repetition. In both cases it gives up the spirit. Only in that mediation by which the meaningless sensation brings a thought to the full productivity of which it is capable, while on the other hand the thought abandons itself without reservation to the predominant impression, is that pathological loneliness which characterizes the whole of nature overcome. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1437

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A dense, paradigm-shifting account of subjectivity as constituted projectively — both positivism and idealism calcify or hollow the ego; the mediation thesis is a full epistemological program in itself.
• DEFINE: Formulates the theory of ‘false projection’ central to the anti-Semitism thesis — essential reference material for the dialectics project.
• XREF: connects to: The ego is a late product of projection, not a primordial given. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 149; Personality arises from consciousness’s reflective self-presence, not from the Ego; Absolute Knowledge arises from being’s own self-systematizing, not from the I — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1090 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The ego is a late product of projection, not a primordial given. #corroborates (1.00) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 149
• Personality arises from consciousness’s reflective self-presence, not from the Ego #expands (0.80)
• Absolute Knowledge arises from being’s own self-systematizing, not from the I #contradicts (0.78) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1090
• The Kantian ego is a product of material economic conditions, not a transcendental given #exemplifies (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 79