Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche (C. G. Jung Foundation Books Series Book 4)

by Edward F. Edinger

the ego is the seat of subjective identity while the Self is the seat of objective identity.

The current working formula therefore is, first half of life: ego-Self separation; second half of life: ego-Self reunion.

In the early phases, representing approximately the first half of life, the cycle is experienced as an alternation between two states of being, namely, inflation and alienation.

We are born in a state of inflation.