quote author=rabbitrabbit board=daily thread=366 post=62016 time=1308290596]
My problem with Maslow's hierarchy are the exceptions to the rule. I've met a number people living in the third world who are pursuing self-actualization with a focus unheard of in most of the US/Europe.
An alternative interpretation to ego as defined by Freud is "ego" as defined by eastern religions - buddhism, hinduism, and others. Lot's of varying beliefs within this huge area of course, and this is a super simplification, but "ego" here is often associated with a falsely inflated self-image, but also a feeling of lack or separation from the universe/god.
One theory (very simplified) is that the ego is our sense of individual identity which makes us feel small, limited, mortal, different from other people, separate from god/the universe. It is the nagging inner voice that belittles and judges ourselves as well as others. It's useful during the editing and refining part of art-making, but not during the creative stage.
The child on the other hand is our innocent, unlimited true nature, open to the universe, curious, playful, experimental, spontaneous -- the unbounded self that allows the divine spark to create through it.
Here's a Rumi poem (sufi mystic) which is kind of about that idea, and about music, so it seemed fitting:
Birdsong brings relief
to my longing
I'm just as ecstatic as they are,
but with nothing to say!
Please universal soul, practice
some song or something through me!
Thanks for posting all this :D 
