Ego is the Holy Grail of a person’s being, and The Ego Unmasked:  Meeting the Greatest Challenge of Your Life will take you to it.  Ego lies at the center of your psychological universe, impacting your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, physical well-being, sometimes for better but often for worse.  Your intelligence is often no match for the hidden ego, which frequently makes us “stupid” in the way we are experiencing and living our lives, including how we relate to other people.  The Ego Unmasked will take you on a journey to ego awareness, ego management, and ego enhancement that will heighten your ego consciousness and open the door to deepening your spiritual consciousness.  You are the greatest challenge in your life, and your ego lies at the center of the challenge.  The Ego Unmasked will help you answer that challenge so you will know who you truly are and who you are capable of becoming.

Due to the hidden and elusive nature of ego, the author has endeavored to write a book that is structured, concrete, and comprehensive while leading the reader methodically along the journey of greater ego awareness, ego management, and ego enhancement.  The Ego Unmasked helps the reader to feel “in context” rather than “out of context” through the use of many examples including references to popular media, current events, and use of the “computer metaphor” that reflect ego and the nature of their ego type.  It also utilizes the “ten key life areas” (e.g., close relationships, self-esteem level, level of expectation and need for achievement, effectiveness in dealing with conflict, etc…) as the means to reflect the person’s ego.  They are presented as mirrors into which the reader can learn about the true nature of their ego.

The “universe of the mind” is a very large and abstract entity where it is easy to get lost in your efforts to find yourself.  The Ego Unmasked gives the reader reference points to get their bearings so they can reach the first destination in the journey – greater ego awareness.  Chapters 1 to 4 (Part One) of the book are used by the reader to get a working knowledge of ego in general as well as a better knowledge of their ego.  You will be presented with a lexicon that will serve as a framework to think about ego and your ego.  These include: ego size, ego permeability, ego fragility, ego type, ego space, ego collisions, ego imperfection, healthy human vulnerability, and mental medicine.

The first destination provides a framework through which you can consider the ego type(s) you may be living.  Chapter 5 (Ego Types) describes 125 different ego types that are distinguished by a combination of ego size (power), ego permeability (flexibility), and ego fragility (vulnerability).  Each ego type is applied to each of the ten key life areas and leads you to a specific determination of the ego type(s) you are living which is the second destination on your journey.  The ego type narratives end with an indication of the kind of ego management you will need to undertake and the imperativeness of doing so.  The latter includes an “Ego Management Need Score” which also reflects the depth of your ego unconsciousness. 

Chapters 6 to 11 are the “ego management” chapters (Part Two) and represent the third stop on the journey.  You will review only those chapters which are linked to the “ego work” you need to do involving your ego size (power), ego permeability (flexibility), and ego fragility (vulnerability).  You can read the rest if you are curious about other people in your life.  Each chapter is divided into ten subsections linked to each of the key life areas.  There is intensive discussion about the types of inaccurate thoughts and beliefs as well as faulty ego awareness that people at the extreme of an ego component (e.g., large ego size, high ego fragility) tend to exhibit in their impaired management of key life areas.  These comments are less applicable, but still relevant to those who are not living an extreme ego component, but have yet to reach the balance point of an ego component.  These discussions are complemented with reality based thoughts and beliefs as well as ego awareness which are the mental medicine you must take and the foundation for your Ego Therapy.

The fourth and final destination for the reader’s journey are Chapters 12 to 17 (Part Three) which are the “ego enhancement” chapters.  Each chapter has a linkage to their relevant counterpart in Part Two (e.g., Chapter 12 is linked to Chapter 6, Chapter 13 is linked to Chapter 7, and so on).  The purpose of Chapters 12 to 17 is to provide a reference point with which you can compare where you were, where you are, and where you need to go in your efforts to enhance your ego and reach the balance point of the ego component you are working on.

In sum, The Ego Unmasked teaches you about your ego, helps you to find the ego type(s) you are living, helps you to better manage and live your ego, and helps you to know how well you are doing in your efforts to do so.