EGOISMO. — From “ego,” I, egoism is the false and exaggerated love of oneself, which leads to a veritable idolatry of the “I,” erected as the sole measure for relations with all other persons and things, and as the sole goal of all one’s efforts. It may also be said that egoism is a practical system according to which the end of every human action is nothing other than the individual interest of the agent, more or less concealed. It is therefore not a particular vice, but rather a disorder in the general ordering willed by God, a latent element, at least initially, in every sin (Sum. Theol., 1°-2°, q. 77, a. 4), insofar as it is aversio a Deo and conversio ad creaturam (the created I); it is corrosive of charity, both as a specific virtue and as that which informs all the other virtues.
According to the order of love, God must be loved first and to the highest degree, because in Him lies the essence and perfection of the good; then follows love of oneself, insofar as the Lord has made it the measure of love of one’s neighbor, while preserving the order of values between oneself and one’s neighbor: our eternal salvation, then that of our neighbor; the good of our body, then the bodily health of our neighbor; our possessions, then those of others.
Thus, on the one hand, man cannot and must not consider his being, with all its natural tendencies, aptitudes, duties, and energies, except within the sphere of the love of God and in dependence upon Him. On the other hand, he cannot fail to observe a second limit, arising from the duty of consideration toward the persons and rights of others, who, like him, are the image of God and called to follow the Savior. Excessive self-satisfaction, or the incense offered to one’s own ego, instead creates disorder in the sphere of love and, with the mirage of one’s own exclusive and temporal happiness, places the ego in the foreground, imprisoned within the darkness of its own personality. The result is the dethroning of God from the place that belongs to Him as the end of all things, together with the sacrifice of the persons with whom one has dealings, who are regarded exclusively as instruments to be used. For this very reason it is absurd to say that asceticism fosters egoism; there is nothing egoistic in the pursuit of one’s sanctification, which cannot exist without the pursuit of God and charity toward one’s neighbor. Egoism, on the contrary, presupposes not a simple reordering of values, but a complete reversal.
This egocentrism, if carried to excess, may also be a source of psychic illnesses, but more often it is an effect rather than a cause of these abnormalities. Egoism is particularly characteristic, for example, in hysteria. The hysteric is consumed by a morbid cult of self, by which everything tends to be referred to himself, to his own usefulness and honor, by the strangest and most refined means. But even apart from these pathological states, in the present condition of man consequent upon original sin, egoism constitutes a serious danger for every Christian, since it is so insidious and subtle that it infiltrates even the holiest works; it is a danger continually lying in wait, since it is profoundly rooted in us. Hence the need for the Christian to watch continually over himself and self-denial (v.) (Mt. 16, 24; Lc. 17, 33; Io. 12, 25). Moreover, among the evils that characterized the world before Christ, and that, according to the Apostle, will characterize the age preceding the end of time, egoism stands first (II Tess. 3, 2), both individual and social. The ethics of the ancient world had in substance been a great cult of self, which conceived the problem of practical life in the form of a relationship between man and other men as an element to be taken into account insofar as evil or good might arise from it: but nothing more. All realities surrounding the ego appeared as means for its own satisfaction. The supreme virtues of the Greeks were all virtues of mastery over one’s passions, for the sake of one’s own individual equilibrium. Platonic-Aristotelian justice, too, was an objective system of relationships whereby each person was to receive what was his; a system that was fitting and respected not only the common good but also one’s own advantage. The gods themselves were venerated not out of sincere devotion, but as the supreme instrument of individual interest. Only in the light of Christ’s redemptive plan, which has recalled God’s creative plan, has the position of the ego between God and one’s neighbor appeared to us in its true reality: the former as the goal of individual perfection, the latter as the proving ground of love of God itself.
BIBLI: C. Antoine, Egotime, in DThC, IV, cols. 2224–30; A. Tanqueray, Compendia di teologia ascetica e mistica, translated by F. Trucco-L. Giunta, Rome 1927, no. 43; D. M. Prümmer, Manuale theologiae moralis, I, 6°–7° eds., Freiburg im Br. 1931; nos. 96, 508 d.; H. De Mesmaecker, Traziatus de actibus honoris, 5° ed., Malines 1630, p. 98; F. Tillmann, Il Maestro chisma, 3° ed., Brescia 1943, pp. 210–28. Pietro Palazini