Alan Watts & Carl Jung: the Ego problem

How 2 geniuses answered life's most confusing question in 3 short parts

Feb 19, 2025

The Ego problem can’t be solved by murder.

“The biggest ego trip going is getting rid of your ego” – Alan Watts. Anyone who tells you otherwise is terribly under-experienced and/or trying to sell you a program or stupid ideology. Yet ego-inflation and disillusionment is clearly an issue.

We’ve all suffered.

According to the Buddha, the selfish-desire of the ego is root of all suffering.

Here’s how 2 geniuses gave us a simple and final answer to the ego problem in 3 short parts…

“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego,

the second half is going inward and letting go of it”

– C.G. Jung

🧠 PART 1) The Jungian Perspective

Ego isn’t pride.

It’s an essential and complex psychological structure built on top of the much larger unconscious mind. Without it, you wouldn’t possess the human faculties of reason, logic, or awareness. The unconscious is more powerful, with millions of years worth of instincts and impressions – but without an ego consciousness to organise and filter it, we’d go insane.

Jung’s early work with schizophrenics led him to believe psychosis is simply the barriers of the unconscious and consciousness breaking down. Leading to a kind of psychological deluge, where the ego is drowned in unconscious contents.

So you see, you can’t just “kill your ego.” It’s the foundation of everything:

Culture
Relationships
The socio-political structure

All depends on us agreeing on common ground.

The Persona is the part of the ego that adapts to social situations. You don’t (and shouldn’t) behave the same way with your boss and lover. You put on a mask, and that’s ok – as long as you know you’re doing it.

Ego is only dangerous when you forget (like society has) it’s only a theory.

☯ PART 2) Alan Watts’ Perspective

“Ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention”

Watts is another genius.

The kind that comes along every thousand years. He became a priest before giving up the church for Zen Buddhism. His knowledge is built on ancient texts like The Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads, and from this he’s formed one of the greatest and complete cosmologies available to us.

“They made it all up.”

Behind all theologies and scientific theories is a universe at play.

This becomes obvious once you realise there’s no inherent meaning of life beyond life itself. The role of religion and life-coaching is convincing us there’s a “big plan,” and we’re very important. But nobody knows. How can we? The cosmos is complexity upon complexity. It’s a miracle beyond belief anything is here in the first place.

[The great paradox]:

Humans need a purpose to motivate ourselves to do anything, but life doesn’t provide an obvious one.

In our desperate search for meaning we’ve created thousands of belief systems and theories about existence and why it’s happening. But have you considered life itself is the meaning? We take it all for granted and say “no, I shouldn’t be here, it’s all so terrible and one day I’m going to die.” But look around you. The birds flying. The sea crashing. The joy of friendship. It’s all play. Nothing is happening for a reason beyond the fact it’s happening and it’s beautiful.

If there was a God, and it was omniscient, omnipotent, and immortal, why would it care if you worshiped it?

Also, wouldn’t it get bored?

Imagine life was eternal and you could do anything. After a few aeons of skullduggery and pleasure seeking, isn’t it inevitable one day you’d say “this has been great, but now for something unexpected.” Watts believed life is God playing hide-and-seek with itself. Energy swirling and bouncing giving off fantastic colours and telling heart-wrenching stories all for the sake of fun.

When you ask the fundamental questions of being, this is the only thing that makes sense.

🤝 PART 3) Synthesis

We come to a paradox.

Ego is vital for human life to function, but is (like life itself) maya (“illusion”). We can’t kill it, because even the desire to end egotism is egotistical. We’re trapped. But here’s the secret: Ananda Maya – “joyful illusion.”

Most people spend their lives trying to escape themselves.

(Becoming enlightened, being good enough to go to heaven, being “productive” and using “self-help” strategies to become someone else entirely).

It’s denial of self, and by extension, life. The key to Heaven is just being you, and living life the best you can. There is no higher goal. You don’t have to prove your existence with achievement. You don’t have to be someone else to be loveable.

Ego can’t be killed, but it can be transcended.

If it gets inflated or too serious, remind yourself life isn’t a serious business.

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun”

– Alan Watts

That’s it!

Let me know your thoughts.

If you liked it, you’ll love this other letter about Jung and Daoism.

Jungian psychology is a powerful tool for life.

But getting started can be a:

Slow
Confusing
Frustrating process

After 5+ years of study, and reading 25+ major titles, I’ve put together a FREE resource to help people avoid overwhelm.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

📚 Core ideas that can be applied right away
📩 Delivered in 5 easy and short lessons
🧠 Great foundation for further study

⭐️ Plus, you’ll get:

Digital assets and a tracker
A curated further reading list

Curious?