The Ego and the Flesh An Introduction to Egoanalysis [Hardcover]

Is our ego but an illusion, a mere appearance produced by a reality that is foreign to us? Is it the main source of violence and injustice? Jacob Rogozinski calls into question these prejudices that dominate current philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the human sciences. Arguing that we must distinguish the true ego from the alienated and narcissistic construct, he calls for an end to egicide, or the destruction of the ego.Ego and the Fleshoffers a critique of the two masters of egicide, Heidegger and Lacan, along with a rereading of Descartes, who was the first to discover the absolute truth of I am. The book's main purpose, however, is to provide an entirely new theory of the self,egoanalysis, which reveals a divided ego-flesh. Constantly striving to attain unity, the ego-flesh is haunted by aremainder, whose role sheds light on various enigmas: the encounter with the other, the passage from hate to love, the death and the resurrection of the I. For ego-analysis is no mere theory: it opens the way to our deliverance.This book criticizes theories, dominant today, that reduce the self to a simple illusion, proposing a new theory of the ego that allows us to better understand our existence and our relations with others. Perhaps the major presumption of 20th-century thought was that the subject, particularly the Cartesian ego, had to be subjected to 'egicide.' It is precisely this ego that Rogozinski sets out to defend in this fascinating book. What is suggestively introduced here is the concept of egoanalysis that is not based on some disembodied self, but on what Rogozinski calls 'the ego-flesh.' Jacob Rogozinski is Professor of Philosophy and Metaphysics at the Marc-Bloch University, Strasbourg. He is the author ofLe don de la loi: Kant et l'?nigme de l'?thique(1999) andFaire part: cryptes de Derrida(2005). WoIchwar, soll Ich werden: WhereIwas, I must become myself. Jacob Rogozinski's provocative reformulation ol½