Phenomenology 2005

Volume 4, Issue Part 2, 2007

Selected Essays from Northern Europe Part 2

Victor Molchanov
Pages 545-572

Experience and Fictions
Stream of Consciousness and Hypertrophy of Ego

The hypertrophy of Ego or “I” is a deformation of experience differentiation, which leads to the formation of the fictive center claiming to rule all of our mental life. The Ego is rather a designation of the lacuna in experience, which represents the hypertrophied unity of consciousness. Husserl’s various attempts to describe the unity of the consciousness in terms of “flux” and “I” (Ego) are instructive for the investigation of the Ego-hypertrophy. The differentiation of fore- and background, whole and parts, and simple and complex are relevant for preventing of any hypertrophy of Ego.