The difference between egoism and egocentrism. Difference between selfishness and egocentrism. Forms of manifestation and what is rational or healthy egoism

Is a person born selfish or does life make him so? How is selfishness formed in a child? The main condition for the normal development of a person, the main life force is love. She is like the sun that gives life. Probably, many of you have heard about the effect of "hospitalism". This phenomenon has been observed in German orphanages. Despite the fact that the children had everything: food, care, warmth, for some reason they not only developed poorly, but there was also increased mortality. As it turned out, this is the result of the fact that the child is deprived of maternal love. Where the nanny showed love, attention and care to the child, he survived. If this was not the case, the child withered, fell ill, and in some cases died. To survive, a child needs, above all, love.

There are similar situations in a family where the mother is in a state of fatigue, irritation, fatigue: she does not have the spiritual strength to show love for the child. When she feeds him, the child may refuse to feed, scream. He develops digestive diseases and other ailments. G.S. Sullivan, an American psychoanalyst who devoted his research to this, found that if a mother feeds a baby in a state of anxiety, then for him the whole world turns dark, becomes scary, threatening, terrible. Children react according to the principle: "all or nothing." Maternal anxiety, even in small doses, causes them an experience of horror, so the situation of feeding becomes scary for the child, and he leaves it, refuses the breast. Many mothers cannot understand why children do not eat well, why they are naughty. And this happens because the situation of feeding becomes traumatic already from infancy due to the condition of the mother herself. It turns out that children are very sensitive to the emotional atmosphere of the family: if it is tense, anxious, dysfunctional, then the mental development of the baby goes according to the type of "hospitalism".

There are also various diseases: physical, and most importantly - mental. The child develops character difficulties. The world for him becomes dangerous, threatening - and this is how egocentrism is formed. The adult becomes dangerous, the world becomes scary, and the child withdraws into himself. We see stubborn children who are afraid and shun adults, children who are negative and aggressive. The mental traumas of infancy absorb all their attention, concentrate their spiritual life on themselves, and in this way an egocentric dominant is formed in them, which distorts the perception of the world around them.

Egocentrism is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness is associated with the life position of using others for one's own purposes, when one's own interests are put in the first place to the detriment of the interests of others. It can be assumed that egoism is associated with egocentrism, but still these are different phenomena.

In her thesis work, Marina Yuryevna Kolpakova conducted research with children from an orphanage, whose parents have been deprived of parental rights, and with children from an ordinary kindergarten. We watched how children develop relationships with people, with the world around them, and tried to understand the psychology of egoism and egocentrism. It turned out that there are different roots. Selfish children usually grow up in families where they are pampered, where the only child becomes the center of the family. Egocentric children are children who are often completely deprived of a family, normal maternal care, these are often children from orphanages.

All participants in the study were shown pictures of the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test). In one of the pictures, a boy with an indefinite expression on his face is holding a violin. You can give different answers: the boy is either thinking, or he is studying the violin, or the boy is sitting sad. The answers depend on the state of the perceiver. Children from the orphanage, as a rule, answered that the boy was left, abandoned, he was alone. The same thought also sounded about other similar pictures: let's say a boy is sitting at the threshold, and the children say that they left him, he is alone. Children from the kindergarten answered that the boy was waiting for someone at the doorstep, he was not alone, but he would learn to play the violin, go to school. Particularly indicative was the picture in which the boy was running, and a steam locomotive was visible behind him. Several children from the orphanage replied that the locomotive wanted to run over the boy, the locomotive was running after him.

Egocentrism is a distorted perception. Such a child cannot adequately see the world. He sees danger where there is none. Internal anxiety and trouble form a distorted perception of reality, inadequacy of the worldview. Children from prosperous families saw the situation as favorable, perceived the world in optimistic tones. Children from difficult families responded like pupils from an orphanage.

So, the atmosphere in the family, love or its absence are decisive in shaping the type of personality. And in the focus on oneself as its two varieties, we distinguish between egocentrism and egoism. Egoism often develops where, despite the fact that the child is pampered, he is deprived of spiritual, inner love, that love that gives a sense of belonging to others. Selfishness is also a consequence of the absence of love, but of a different type. With a selfish child, one must behave differently than with an egocentric one. If the egoistic must be placed in conditions where it is necessary to take into account the interests of others, trying to change the habits and attitude of the child, then with the egocentric one must act very carefully. It must be treated with love.

Let us summarize what has been said about the difference between egoism and egocentrism. The egoist uses other people as a means to achieve his own goals, puts his own interests first at the expense of others. Egocentrism is a consequence of mental trauma in early childhood. Such children have an increased level of anxiety, they tend to expect bad things and project their inner spiritual experience onto others.

Hello dear readers! Have you ever met a person who does not think about anyone but himself beloved? How can you name it? Selfish? Who is the egocentric person? Today I propose to understand these two concepts, consider the signs of a person obsessed with himself, understand why children's egocentrism passes into adulthood and what to do about it.

Since people often confuse selfishness and egocentrism, I would like to offer you Rudolf Steiner's book " Egoism in philosophy". Thanks to the work of the Austrian philosopher, you can trace the formation of individualism from ancient Greece itself.

Definition

The word "egocentrism" in Latin means nothing more than "I" in the center of the circle. What does it mean? A person cannot put himself in the place of another, he considers himself the center of the universe or an extreme form of selfishness.

Let's see what are the signs of self-centered people. The first sign is . Such a person does not know how to read other people's emotions, he does not put himself in the place of another at all, he interprets everything relative to himself. As a result, he has difficulties in. It is extremely difficult to communicate with such a person.

If everything goes well with upbringing, then a person acquires a healthy self-esteem, he knows how to put himself in the place of another person, he understands that he is not the center of the universe.

If an adult could not become a healthy egoist, then there were some problems on. This happens because of parental connivance, because of the lack of love or its overabundance.

We discussed the signs of an egocentric above. What does healthy selfishness mean? The instinct of self-preservation and satisfaction of one's needs is very strong in a person. An adequate adult will strive to resolve the situation in such a way that both he and other participants will benefit.

But as in any situation, there is another side, when a person puts himself on the altar of sacrifice. I talk about this in the article "".

What to do

If you have to communicate with an egocentric, then the surest decision is not to indulge his desires and passions, for example, when parents constantly pamper their blood. A person must understand that not always happens the way he wants. Your task is to be calm, reasonable and cold-blooded.

Try to do charity work. Just be smart about this issue. Not just transfer one hundred rubles to the fund’s account, but go to work with orphans, or go to a nursing home. Find out what kind of help is needed in the children's center near you. Learn to see other people's problems.

How can you describe an egocentric person? How is he different from a healthy egoist?

Loving yourself does not mean not loving others.
Best wishes to you!

Egoism and egocentrism

Many times we have read and heard about how dangerous selfishness is. Often egoism and its "younger brother" egocentrism are directly linked, and it is said that in fact both are dangerous.

In his article “What is mysticism”, Professor Livraga writes: “Egoism and its exoteric (external. - Approx. ed.) shadow - egocentrism - have always been stumbling blocks on the path of physical, mental, mental and spiritual development ... "

It becomes clear that both egoism and egocentrism are harmful. But we would like to take another look at this problem and try to understand more deeply what is the difference between one and the other concept.

Why is egocentrism only the exoteric side of egoism? Why does it turn out that egoism has deeper roots and causes more terrible, fatal consequences, while egocentrism always remains only its external, visible manifestation?

Egocentrism is a feeling of being the center of the world and all events. This is the need to be in charge, to always attract the attention of others. If we call natural behavior and actions that come from elementary instincts and impulses inherent in a person, then in a sense we can say that egocentrism is also his natural state.

However, this condition, character traits and behavior are peculiar to humans, and among animals they are very rare. The animal lives its life with true naturalness, it protects itself and its young from other animals and humans only when it feels that danger comes from them.

It is strange, but often it turns out that contact with a person “infects” domestic animals with the “virus of egocentrism”, and we see how such a familiar need for us to attract all the eyes, to appropriate all the caresses and exclusive attention of the owner begins to manifest in them. So along with egocentrism, jealousy is born.

From the very first months of his life, the child requires the exclusive attention of his parents, especially his mother. He already has his own methods and his own "tactics" that allow this to be achieved and lead to tenderness of adults, who notice with joy and delight that such a tiny creature has already become somewhat similar to them.

As time passes, children and young people, as they grow, increasingly begin to feel the need to become the center of attention in the home, among friends, at school, in their environment. Egocentrism gradually turns into a peculiar form of self-affirmation. Later, he can cause feelings that are mistakenly called love, not noticing that they are based on the spirit of possessiveness. The desire to feel loved in this case will mean the demand to become the center of the existence of another person. Subsequently, anti-love is born from this - selfishness. To be an egoist means to feel not just the center, but the only center of the world.

Although a person knows that there are other people, he lives and behaves as if they do not exist, and does not notice anything and no one but himself. In this case, the famous parable of the cranes, which Plato tells in his Dialogues, literally applies. After much deliberation, the cranes meeting in a secret meeting come to the conclusion that the creatures living in the world are divided into two large parts: cranes and non-cranes.

The same thing happens with a selfish person. For him, the world consists of two obvious and understandable parts: he himself, the main, main and one of a kind, and all the rest, "not-I", only vaguely existing in the egoist's imagination somewhere in his own shadow.

It's not even that the egoist isolates himself from the world, as some argue. On the contrary, the egoist perfectly sees all the diversity of life. The fact is that this diversity does not interest him, just as he is not interested in what can happen to other people if he is satisfied with himself and his desires and requirements are satisfied. In addition to being an egocentric, he also becomes cold and indifferent to everything else, he "does not give a damn" about other people and it is no longer enough that he is the center of attention.

Being completely absorbed in the ugly form of love that he has for himself, he does not respect, is not able to appreciate even this attention. The egoist manifests both the jealousy of the egocentrist and the complete inability to love, which has already become the main feature of his personality.

Professor Livraga's article we are citing says: “Love is bestowal, and, accordingly, bestowal is a manifestation of Love…” How to achieve that lofty goal towards which all genuine human relationships aspire?

True relationships and coexistence are impossible without generosity and love. They are also impossible when they are built on the basis of the egoistic feeling of a person who prevails over everything and absorbs everything, who imagines himself to be the only center of the world.

In order for true relationships to be born and for people to coexist with each other, you need to open your own heart and find in it a place, at least a little corner, for all creatures living on Earth.

You need to expand your consciousness and learn to penetrate into the soul, into the innermost essence of all things, you need to feel the mysterious infinity of the Universe.

You need to know all living things, learn to love and respect him. We must free ourselves from the prison of our own selfishness and show the courage to show ourselves as we are, sharing with others all the beauty that we have and that we carry in our souls.

Without justifying egocentrism and realizing that it is only the first, infantile stage of a person’s self-affirmation, we must do our best to destroy the dark roots of egoism, from which not only egocentrism is born, but also other evils and which are the most terrible obstacle to our spiritual development. No one can develop spiritually and achieve their goals if at the same time they neglect other people and remain indifferent to their problems and sufferings, to their dreams and spiritual development.

No one can achieve liberation unless he first frees himself from the shackles of selfishness that prevent him from loving and helping others. There is no Nirvana for egoists. We end our short reflections with the words of Professor Livraga:

“There is no person who would be a coward more than an egoist. And there is no person more cruel than an egoist. No one is so proud of himself and does not show his strength so much as a selfish person in his victories and triumphs. But no one is ever so pathetic and weak as an egoist in his falls.

http://www.inter-pedagogika.ru/shapka.php?sect_type=11&menu_id=98§ion_id=1304&alt_menu=-1

In everyday usage, "egoist" is more common than "egocentric", so most people tend not to distinguish between these concepts, throwing everything into a heap. And there is a difference between the two.

I really like the understanding of egoism and egocentrism, which I read a long time ago in some book (I don’t remember which one now) and made it my working definition.

The egoist says: "I am the center of the Universe. Therefore, all of you, the people around me, should perceive me exactly this way: you should jump around me, please me, do everything for me, sacrificing your interests for the sake of my interests."

The egocentrist says: “I am the center of the Universe. My personal Universe. It is so great, so interesting and so beautiful that I don’t need anyone else. Therefore, all of you, the people around me, with your problems and worries, with your interests and desires , with your opinions about the world and about me, mean absolutely nothing to me."

Based on the above, egoism and egocentrism are not just different concepts, they are in many ways diametrically opposed concepts.

The egoist needs the whole world - for everyone to revolve around him. An egocentrist does not need anyone, because he has his own world that revolves around him.

If a man does not work, sits on the neck of his wife, who plows three jobs, supporting herself and him, this is a typical egoist.

If a man is a bachelor who starts relationships with women exactly as much as he is interested in, and easily terminates them when it ceases to suit him, he is a typical egocentrist.

An egoist cannot be alone for a long time: he needs the attention and care of others. An egocentrist does not need anyone, he is always good with himself.

So, in a nutshell.

These are two very different terms. Better not to confuse them.

Selfishness - always, in all situations, with any people - come purely from personal interests associated with a particular benefit. Material or not, it doesn't matter.

Egocentrism (Enlightened Superegocentrism) is a creed, a position in life when one's own opinion, one's decisions and actions, one's views on any issue, event or deed - are always placed above all others in one's system of values. What is possible, what is impossible, what is good for him, and what is bad, right and wrong - the egocentrist reviews all value judgments through the prism of his position.

Strong, successful and strong-willed people who know how to overcome themselves, take responsibility for others and not be afraid to make decisions are most often egocentric.

The egoist considers the environment as a source of achieving his goals, and benefits, and only his own.

The egocentrist considers the environment as part of his world, and himself. An egocentrist, as a rule, is capable of "superpersonal" (not related to his immediate interests) actions, simply because it should be so in "his" world.

The egocentrist in his system of values ​​is the subjective center of the universe.

Unlike an egoist, an egocentrist can act and make decisions in favor of other people's interests, which personally may not bring him any benefit.

In the various dictionaries that people often resort to in order to strengthen their argument, one can see that these two concepts are often not separated from each other. So, in some definitions it is written: "Egocentrism is an extreme degree of manifestation of egoism", which, of course, is erroneous.

Egocentrism is actually a term from developmental psychology: up to a certain age, a small child is able to imagine the situation (spatially, etc.) only from his own point of view.

Egoism is an evaluative (judgmentally) colored name for behavior when a person puts his interests in the first place. That for an adult, mature person - in fact, the algorithm is quite normal, where are the attempts to somehow deprive the term of negative connotations (associations): "healthy egoism", for example.

Perhaps the confusion between the ordinary use of the terms "egocentrism" and "egoism" is precisely the result of attempts to somehow separate the two classes of situations:

1) when a person simply follows his own interests first of all (which, perhaps, disappoints people around: they would like the other person to put THEIR interests above their own, or even at least in one row, without advantages ... - But how - something is perceived as a variant of the norm). -

2) And when a person does not just put his own interests in the first place, but proceeds from the complete insignificance of the interests of those around him: casually cause grief, ruin, "wipe his feet" about those who are caught - not even out of evil, but because there is me, and everything else is insignificant.

It is clear that the behavior is fundamentally different, and the word in Russian for them is the same: "egoism."

So they try (once again, we are talking about ordinary word usage) to call one of these options "egocentrism", and leave "egoism" for the other. Moreover, a single practice, but on what - what to "stick", which label where exactly - did not work out.

Reply

Here it is appropriate to cite one surprising observation of its kind. - Egocentrism and narcissism can be, so to speak, "secondary" - consciously cultivated by people in themselves. Thus, the “victorious march of narcissism” (the title of the essay by A. Sozonova about this phenomenon, see http://hpsy.ru/public/x2262.htm) is now observed in the broad post-Soviet masses, in the well-known absurd reaction of these masses to forced socialist collectivism : everyone is now talking about "themselves beloved", advertising teaches - "the world was created for you", etc. etc.
A more subtle manifestation of self-cultivated egocentrism is a cultural phenomenon known as "aestheticism". Here, everything that appears to a person, an “esthete” - he learns to perceive only as aesthetic phenomena, that is, only as his own impressions, without further reconstruction of his own being perceived - and thus even the most terrible (for others) or bad ( morally) can appear to him as simply entertaining and even beautiful. That is, in order for the spectacle of, say, someone else's death to be used aesthetically, in an aesthetic way, one must find in oneself and cultivate primitive solipsism. Narcissism is included, as noted above, to solipsism "in the kit." Do you want to be a poet? - then “do not sympathize with anyone, love yourself ...”, etc. For to sympathize is, after all, what it means to reconstruct objectivity, to pierce the aesthetic surface of things, while the poet, from an aesthetic point of view, must fundamentally remain on this surface; but “never sympathize with anyone” will not work without narcissism. Let me note: here we are not talking about crude and understandable egoism, but about (a special kind, but still quite repulsive) egocentrism-narcissism.
Egocentrism is also cultivated, in my opinion, by the usual religious attitude: here the believer feels himself in such an attitude to the world in which his (the world's) creator deals with him personally, has his own plans for him, is available at his will, and even, as a result of known sacred actions, can correct by him the given course of things in his, the believer, favor ...

(2) This formula - “doing good to others, I do it for myself” - is also similar to the formula of true morality, reasonable humanity: but the egocentric himself in his good is still similar to a spiritually developed person. - There are parallels: we remain fair even with people who are unsympathetic to us for the sake of our “internal” “God”, that is, for the sake of our own conscience, and therefore, ultimately, “for ourselves”; here, however, in a different from the egocentric sense, namely - “I do not expect anything from this for myself, no benefits or rewards, conscience itself constitutes my “interest”” ... - Well, the human spirit grows from a savage to a rational being millennia, ascends from an egocentric to a human being, recognizing and understanding others, with difficulty, and along with this long ascent of the spirit, the "God" of the savage gradually turns into a familiar metaphor for truth and goodness. “The kingdom of God is within us” (with me, in me, for me): this is conscience. Conscience, which was more understandable to the savage in the form of an all-seeing punishing God, and the God of a reasonable person is only a metaphor for the incorruptible conscience that understands everything in him.
The situation is somewhat different with the egoist. If the conscience in a worthy developed person is what is most important in him, what allows him to respect himself, his dear best self (almost like an egocentric), then for an egoist his conscience is his enemy: after all, she is something that can to prevent him from taking possession of something he wants, when nothing objectively prevents him ...