Relationship between ego and trauma 

Ego as armour: The ego is not the true self, but the mask or armor we put on to move through the world safely. It’s a bundle of strategies — control, image, judgment, performance — that protects our vulnerability.

• Trauma as the forge: Trauma creates the conditions that make armour necessary. When raw selfhood was unsafe, the ego formed to shield us from pain, rejection, or annihilation.

• Why it feels inevitable: We wear ego because at one point, it was necessary for survival. But as adults, it calcifies and distances us from real contact. What felt protective becomes constriction.

• Healing: The path isn’t about strengthening the ego but about loosening it. Trauma work helps us recognize, “This armour once saved me, but I am not the armour.” Healing is reclaiming the courage to live without that mask, to feel directly, to risk connection again.