Ego is how great you think you are. Self respect is how great you know you are.

According to Freud, who coined the term, ego is the part of us that functions in the world. Id is our hedonistic urges, superego is our conscience. Think of it like the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. Ego is the guy in the middle. Self respect is having an earned positive feeling about onesself.

The definition of the ego that you're thinking of is quite different from Frued's view of it, which is a moderator between social demands and your id. Self-respect, on the other hand, is "due regard for oneself" (dictionary.com). This means that self-respect is the respect deserved by yourself. Now I'm all confused too....

Assuming you are defining ego as conceit... Ego is thinking no one is AS GOOD as you are. Self respect is thinking no one is BETTER than you are.

ego is doing something without self-respect and self-respect is doin something with a bit of ego (my opinion)

Ego is into praise (although sometimes it is into condemation from authority(. Self-respect is against praise.

The essential difference is that ego is a false self constructed upon our withdrawal from life due to pain or unpleasant experiences, while self-respect arises in our sense of being connected to life. So they're pointed in "opposite directions", if you will. Another way to say it is that ego withdraws from others and tries to build a barrier around itself, and then tries to control and dominate others from within the "safety" of this barrier. Self respect doesn't require a barrier between self and life: a person remains connected to life and others, and recognizes the value of their own contribution, as well as the value of others. Self respect doesn't need to control or dominate.

There is a very thin line between Ego and Self Respect. For Eg.: You had a fight with someone and you are not talking with each other. There was a difference in opinion, here we have a situation where both want there point of view to be PROVEN. They want / think that their opinion is the Best. So thats where EGO comes in the picture, its their Ego which says "Why should the other person have a better opinion, it should only be me".......Now thats EGO. Where in case of Self Respect where we have situation where for Eg.: A servant is scolded and is misunderstood by the house owner and the owner thinks the servant has stolen something and treats him severely and abuses the servant and if the servant in reality has not done any such thing just walks out and never shows up again, now this is where Self Respect comes into picture and not Ego. So we can draw a conclusion that Ego is generally Personal where as Self Respect arises due to Social and Personal reasons. Self Respect is when Ethics are questioned.... Ego is when Self is questioned.....

when some one crosess the border of the essence of self respect, s/he is doing nothing but contributing to his/her EGO in absence of his/her mind or control. - raihan bangladesh

Your ego is your view of yourself, by definition. Self respect is having respect for yourself. Self respect more or less determines how far you will debase yourself, ego determines what you think you deserve. I dunno, you can have a lot of self respect even if you don't like yourself, and vice versa.

"Ego" is farther down the line on the same continuum of self-interest/regard? ;-)

Ego is something you throw around to attempt to define yourself with, generally, in the hopes of achieving social fame and respect through your circle of friends and beyond. Such is usually not justified, as in talk the talk but trip the walk. And even if it is, using genuine individual qualities in the respects that usually make egos frowned upon, say as a weapon to belittle or use others isn't the same as self respect. Self respect doesn't necessarily need to be attributed to humility and assorted corny hippy shyte, but it's still respect if you don't cross your bounds or claim something beyond the extent of your qualities for reasons defying what these qualities originally came from in the first place. Unless you're a prick of the highest order by nature, then nobody can say nothing. To want to learn more and acquire more knowledge for reasons other than enlightenment is subjective in every meaning of the word, as are the methods and purposes, and anyways, all we ever do derives from the need to be accepted, respected and loved, even if you know it. That's why I always hated all those bloody leaflets and self help books about overcoming your insecurity and shyness, it's not because I have no social skills that I don't hate everyone. XD Does that even make sense? No? Kay later. XD

ego has two levels. high and low. Someone with a high ego truely believes they are better than everyone else, someone with a low ego builds themseleves up and talks themselves into believing they are someone that is better than everyone else. They are good at talking themselves up but never facing the things they aren't good at.They will stoop to a low level to prove themselves no matter how inappropriate. Someone with self respect knows their boundaries, keeps to them and doesn't believe they are any better or any worse than others. They do what they can without a big head and know when to give self gratification and when not to. Someone with self respect is able to take responsibility for their mistakes and be pro-active about fixing them. They respect others and go about showing themselves off with pride.