Why is the ego egotistic? The formal tasks of the ego, the embodied 'I', being a virtual centre for experience and the bridge between past retentions and future expectations ought to be enough for it but it seems that in addition to these and hindering them somewhat it acquires all sorts of desires and pretentions of its own, especially those of a sort of grandeur, an eminence above that of others. This involves it in elaborate and distorted interpretations needed to buttress its narratives, and further to protect its distortions etc. All of this behaviour seems so natural that we take it for granted without wondering why it should be so at all. It is as if it crystalised at some moment around a lie and has added layer after layer of defensive misdirection around it in order to build a serviceable social self. The treasure that the original lie defended has long since decayed, but the resulting habits have been cast in stone.