Editing Alter ego (section)

== Origin ==
[[Cicero]] coined the term as part of his philosophical construct in 1st-century [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], but he described it as "a second self, a trusted friend".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alter+ego|title=Alter Ego|year=2009|work=Collins English Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 10th Edition|publisher=William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.|access-date=13 January 2013}}</ref> {{Citation missing|date=May 2025}}

The existence of "another self" was first fully recognized in the 18th century, when [[Anton Mesmer]] and his followers used [[hypnosis]] to separate the alter ego.<ref>J Haule, ''Jung in the 21st Century II'' (2010) p. 88</ref> These experiments showed a behavior pattern that was distinct from the personality of the individual when he was in the [[waking state]] compared with when he was under hypnosis. Another character had developed in the altered state of [[consciousness]] but in the same body.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pedersen|first=David|title=Cameral Analysis: A Method of Treating the Psychoneuroses Using Hypnosis|year=1994|publisher=Routledge|location=London, U.K.|isbn=0-415-10424-6|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8GkPGW8KyYC&q=psychological+phenomenon+of+the+Alter+ego&pg=PA20}}</ref>

[[Sigmund Freud]], throughout his career, would appeal to such instances of dual consciousness to support his thesis of the unconscious.<ref>Freud, S., ''Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis'' (Penguin 1995) p. 21</ref> He considered that "We may most aptly describe them as cases of a splitting of the mental activities into two groups, and say that the same consciousness turns to one or the other of these groups alternately".<ref>Freud, S. ''On Metapsychology'' (PFL 11) p. 172</ref> Freud considered the roots of the phenomenon of the alter ego to be in the [[Narcissism|narcissistic stage]] of early childhood.<ref>Freud, S., 'The Uncanny' ''Imago'' V (1919) p. 41</ref> [[Heinz Kohut]] would identify a specific need in that early phase for mirroring, by another which resulted later in what he called the "twinship or alter ego transference".<ref>Kohut, H., ''How Does Analysis Cure?'' (London 1984) p. 192-3</ref>