Beth Nash, age 15, of Pocatello, Ida., for her question:

WHAT IS THE EGO?

Psychology, means the conscious self or "I." Ego was viewed by some philosophers, notably the 17th century Frenchman Rene Decartes in the 18th century German Johann Fichte, as the sole basis of reality. They saw the universe as existing only in the individual's knowleage and experience of it.

Other philosophers, such as the 18th century German Immanuel Kant, proposed two forms of ego: one perceiving arid the other thinking.

In psychoanalysis, the term ego denotes the central part of the personality structure that deals with reality and is influenced by social forces. According to the psychoanalytic theories developed by Sigmund Freud, the ego constitutes one of the three basic provinces of the mind, the other two being the id and the superego. Formation of the ego begins at birth in the first encounters with the external world of people and things. Tne ego learns to modify behavior by controlling those impulses that are socially unacceptable. Its role is that of mediator between unconscious impulses and acquired social and personal standards.