Egophage is an attempt to share some of the delightful stories and concepts cluttering up my attic. See anything you like?
If you think anything sounds interesting, let me know and I can develop it.
Q. What does Egophage mean?
n., pl., e·gos.
- The self, especially as distinct from the world and other selves.
- In psychoanalysis, the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality.
- An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit.
- Appropriate pride in oneself; self-esteem.
[New Latin, from Latin, I. Sense 2, translation of German Ich, a special use of ich, I, as a psychoanalytic term.
One that eats: macrophage.
[From Greek -phagos, eating, from phagein, to eat.]
Literally, Egophage refers to the self consuming itself, a concept similar to Ouroboros or Jormundgand as serpents eating their own tails. A casual reading of the term gives connotations of immortality and universality – as in the Tarot card ‘The World’. However, given the somewhat uncertain delineation of the self as a concept, it also refers to the self/other consuming the self/other, it underlines the dynamic interplay of relations between everything, as well as the uncertainty of the delineations themselves.