Ego of the groups

Every sufficiently complex system tends to exhibit ego. In an individual, ego is mostly understood to represent the id, a sense of identity/self manifested mostly by the (rational) instinct of self-preservation, self-gratification and selfishness. But there is also a collective ego, which provides us a lens through which to understand crowds (groups of people such as teams, companies, political parties, religions, markets, even countries), both small and large. For those who care to look for it, there is a lot of material on the individual ego, how to define it, locate it and subdue/manage it. But when the individual is subsumed into a larger group (say, a company), his behaviour is often driven by the herding instinct, and the herd has a different personality, a different id. This id is called the collective ego. Knowledge of your own ego is, of course, a must. Managing your own ego is one of the critical life skills, but understanding the collective ego will also add to your intelligence. It'll help you to understand group dynamics and manage yourself and your life through these groups. The laws of groupthink are embedded in the collective ego. As is the case with the individual, the collective ego manifests itself in the desire for self-preservation, not just of the group itself, but also of its internal structure. That is, it tries to maintain the status quo of the inter-relationships within the group, especially with reference to the leader. That is what makes transformation of groups/companies such a difficult job. Self-preservation is the objective of the individual ego, but it is not the objective of life or nature. So while the instinct for self-pr

This article was originally published on August 04, 2018.