What is "alter ego"

1530s, from Latin phrase (used by Cicero), "a second self, a trusted friend" (compare Greek allos ego); see alter and ego.

n. Somebody's alternate personality or persona; another self.

n. a very close and trusted friend who seems almost a part of yourself

An alter ego ( Latin, "the other I") is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. A person who has an alter ego is said to lead a double life. The term appeared in common usage in the early 19th century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists. Cicero first coined the term as part of his philosophical construct in 1st century Rome, but he described it as "a second self, a trusted friend". A distinct meaning of alter ego can be found in literary analysis, wherein it describes characters in different works who are psychologically similar, or a fictional character whose behavior, speech or thoughts intentionally represent those of the author. It's also used to designate the best friend of another character in a story. Similarly, the term alter ego may be applied to the role or persona taken on by an actor or by other types of performers.

The existence of "another self" was first recognized in the 1730s. Anton Mesmer used hypnosis to separate the alter ego. These experiments showed a behavior pattern that was distinct from the personality of the individual when he was in the waking state compared to when he was under hypnosis. Another character had developed in the altered state of consciousness but in the same body.

Alter ego is also used to refer to the different behaviors any person may display in certain situations. Related concepts include avatar, doppelgänger, impersonator, and dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Alter Ego is a role-playing video game released by Activision in 1986. It was created by Peter J. Favaro for the Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Apple II, and the Apple Macintosh. The game allows the user to make decisions for an imaginary person (being therefore the player's alter ego) and shows what possible consequences these decisions could have on that person. Alter Ego was available in both male and female versions, each using a different set of experiences.

The player's alter ego begins the game as an infant; the game presents the user with a tree diagram with nodes, each labeled with an icon. The player chooses an icon representing an "experience" or situation to explore. Each icon bears a symbol showing what kind of experience it represents (for example, a heart denotes an emotional event). After making a choice in each node, the user is moved back to the tree with that node marked as completed. In this manner, the user can progress to the next experience, thus living through his or her alter ego's entire life and examining what impact their decisions had. Some of these experiences are disturbing, and can even lead to premature death (such as being raped and killed by a child molester), though most tend to be humorous.

Alter Ego keeps track of certain player statistics throughout the game, which in turn affect the alter ego's ability to succeed at certain choices. For example, in the high school segment, the player might be given the choice of trying out for the school baseball team, or deciding instead to crack down and study harder to improve in math. This decision might change the alter ego's "Physical", "Confidence", and "Intellectual" statistics, which in future experiences might influence the alter ego's ability to get into college or succeed in social situations.

The game was advertised as being based on actual psychological knowledge and experience.

An alter ego is an alternate personality or persona.

Alter ego may also refer to:

"Alter Ego" is the 56th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 14th episode of the third season. It was directed by castmember Robert Picardo ("The Doctor").

In this episode, entanglements ensue after Ensign Kim asks Tuvok for help "falling out of love" with a holographic character who in turn falls for the Vulcan, leaving Kim jealous.

Alter Ego is an American magazine devoted to comic books and comic-book creators of the 1930s to late-1960s periods comprising what fans and historians call the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comic Books.

It was founded as a fanzine by Jerry Bails in 1961, and later taken over by Roy Thomas. Ten issues were released through 1969, with issue #11 following nine years later. In 1999, following a five-issue run the previous years as a flip-book with Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego began regular bimonthly publication as a formal magazine with glossy covers.

Alter Ego is a studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 1995 by ZYX Music.

Alter Ego is a 2007 film produced by Village Roadshow Films (Greece). It premiered on May 10, 2007 in Greek theaters, and is famous for being the debut film of Greek superstar Sakis Rouvas. The film was one of the most successful films of all time in Greece, and at a budget of £2,000,000, it is recognized as being the most expensive Greek production in history. The film also made history by staging the largest ever filmed concert in Greece, with an audience of over 7,000, filmed at Lycabettus Theatre in Athens. The film's soundtrack, which includes 5 songs by Sakis Rouvas, achieved huge success and a Gold certification.

Alter Ego is a German acid house music group, comprising Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke. They achieved notability in 2004 with their track "Rocker", which became one of the year's defining dance anthems, especially in Europe, and getting played on rotation amongst the most popular electroclash DJs such as Felix Da Housecat and 2 Many DJs. The track peaked at #32 in the UK Singles Chart.

In the 2004 Groove Magazine Readers Poll, Alter Ego won three categories, taking out the award for 'Best Single' for "Rocker", 'Best Album' for Transphormer, and also 'Best Live Act'. French group Black Strobe took out 'Best Remix' honours with their remix of "Rocker".

In 2005, Roman Flügel went on to produce the track "Gehts Noch", which was a worldwide hit, and was regularly played by many international DJs.

Alter Ego is the original Peruvian neo-progressive rock band whose style goes from the ever changing art rock from the 1990s mixed with new sounds from the 1970s. Their style crosses between symphonic rock, hard rock to power ballads and R&B. The band was founded in 1992 by pianist/composer and lead singer Juan Carlos Oganes in Perú (South America), who assembled five other musicians and developed a sound that was rare for the time in that part of the world. They combined much of the anthem-type compositions of Juan Carlos Oganes with nice and lush vocal harmonies in the style of Queen and Yes. The album was produced by him and recorded at Emporium Digital Studios. Alter Ego paid much attention to theatrics and used the cinematographic expertise of Oganes -to create a sense of audiovisual entertainment. Oganes also directed their videos. They recorded much material since their first years and many of those songs ended in their 1997 debut album called Utopia.

By the end of the 1990s, friction within the band led to their momentary split in 2000. Some time after, a new line up was to be formed by Oganes to play new material which was supposed to be released as an album called 'Cinema' back in 1999 before their split. A new album is scheduled to be out by the middle of this decade.

Juan Carlos Oganes is also known as an actor, audiovisual producer and filmmaker having directed some short and feature films with his company Emporium Digital Studios.

Alter Ego is a double album by Tyrese. Disc 1 features only R&B, while disc 2 features only hip hop. The rapping is by Tyrese under his alter ego " Black-Ty".

Guest features include: The Game, Method Man, Snoop Dogg, Lil Scrappy, Kurupt, Too Short, R. Kelly, Lil Jon and Mannie Fresh.

The first single is "One" and the second single is "Turn Ya Out" which is produced by and features Lil Jon.

The album was released in stores on December 12, 2006. The album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200 with 116,000 copies sold in its first week.

Alter Ego is the soundtrack for the film of the same name. It was released in June 2007 by Minos EMI. All five singles from the soundtrack are sung by popular singer Sakis Rouvas, who also made his feature film début, interpreting the lead role of Stefanos.

Alter Ego was an American melodic rock band from Virginia formed in the 1980s. In 1989, they released their only album, Fear.

Alter Ego is an adventure game developed by the Czech company Future Games in 2010. It is similar to another company´s game The Black Mirror. The game uses AGDS Engine. It was the last game by Future Games.

"Alter Ego" is a song performed by the Cypriot rock band Minus One. The song, written by Minus One and Thomas G:son, represented Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The official music video for the song was released on 22 February 2016. The song was released as a digital download on 11 March 2016 via Minus One Ltd.