Up: [[Analysis]] Related: [[Six Signs of a Strong Ego]] Created: 2023-10-21 Updated: 2025-12-18 Some therapies are all about supporting and building up the [[Ego]]. Analysis does that as well, but for the specific purpose of making the ego strong enough that it can handle stepping aside and allowing integration of the autonomous unconscious. This acceptance and integration is essential to the process of [[Individuation]]. A strong ego allows [[shadow]] content and brings it into therapy where it can be worked with. A weak ego rejects whatever is uncomfortable by repressing, denying, or blaming others. The problem is that rejected contents don’t disappear. They force their way to the surface through physical symptoms, in our dreams, and in patterns of behaviour that don’t serve us. Analysts know, through your dream images, how your ego is doing and they are brilliant at adjusting the therapy to what you are individually ready for. They accurately gauge the degree of overwhelm that is being experienced and what can be tolerated, giving helpful advice such as [[How to Handle Flooding]]. It’s much riskier trying to open to unconscious contents on your own through the use of psychedelics. If doing so from the position of a weak ego, you can be pushed into psychosis. See [[The Difference Between Neurosis and Psychosis]]. [[C. G. Jung]] believed that many psychoses, and particularly schizophrenia, were the result of an ego too weak to resist the onslaught of unconscious contents. So a strong ego is absolutely essential in therapy. The goal isn’t to get rid of it, but rather to move it from it’s chosen position as the sole inhabitant of our personal universe.