Hi Enlightened,
This is part of what I have come to understand in regards to this topic...
All spiritual paths, "personal development"/"self-realisation" methods are predicated on firstly understanding or sensing that we tend to live out of some inadequate "pseudo" (false) personality to some degree or other. Most of these paths & methods seem to imply there is a specific 'true self", "original self" or "higher self" that is there to be attained - and also implying that, once attained, it's never lost. In the BK case, once attained in one Kalpa, re-attained every Kalpa. But this very notion of a defined/perfected state is itself a false idea, a pseudo-idealism.
There may be others, but I have found only three
comprehensive philosophical approaches that are not promising you can replace your (current imperfect) "pseudo" personality with another (future) "true" personality. They describe, in their own different ways, that the deeper endeavour is to realise the nature of self, consciousness and personality are ever-changing.
The three I refer to are the Tao, Buddhism (particularly Mahayana) and Jungian psychology. The last is modern but is premised on the almost Taoi-ist Yin/yYng dynamic that whatever you are "realising" or manifesting and living out now, no matter how honourable, good or adequate, it means that there is another aspect or potential that will therefore be unrealised, unlived, not "honoured" ... causing a seeking for wholeness, or creating a certain tension/stress similar to what is expressed in Buddhism's first noble truth "Bhawa Dhukka".
Our ego mechanism depends on continuity of awareness of what went before - a split second ago or years ago (hence the translation of "
smritti" to be literally
memory but implicitly
consciousness). A certain level of tension & stress is necessary, arising as we try to "get a fix" on the ever-changing world and try to perpetuate that consciousness or sense of self, but it's often no longer relevant,things have changed.
The single certainty is change - large or small, but always change - and Self must change in attunement with it. To think of a 'state of self" - state=static - is to hang on too tightly to a predetermined consciousness and leads to a kind of neurotic personality. On the other hand, to change erratically, without reference to memory of past and current reality, is a kind of paranoia.
These three approaches are all about ways to 'ride the tiger" or to "go with the flow" or explore the "undiscovered Self" - which will forever be changing as Time & events change, so "what I am (conscious of)" has changed, therefore "what I am not (conscious of)" or still to be realised has also changed. That is, it's not a single linear road with steps to be reached, but a dynamic flux of actualities and possibilities.
There is a psycho-emotional instinct to constantly re-balance, the way we constantly adjust our steering ever so slightly even on a straight road. The BK path, like many others, abuses this instinct when, like a bad TV infomercial, it oversimplifies and promises that there is a product, a series of easy steps to become a recognised, certified "perfect self" - and this leaves distorted and abused persons/personalities in its wake.
I suspect that it's an overstretched, psycho-emotional tension desperately straining for rebalancing and wholeness that motivates most BKs to become ex-BKs.
In short, all personalities are "pseudo personalities" to differing degrees, but the ones who suffer most are the ones less open to recognising that about themselves, the
suppression by ideology of any instinctive, fluid, changing (maturing) self-awareness.
We are all also, to different degrees, thieves and tricksters, because "personality" is what we present and express to the world. We mask much about ourselves most of the time. A thief & trickster who knows what he is and admits it to himself is better than a one who pretends he is not, always self-justifying his thefts and trickery with all kinds of rationalisations and sophistry.
The BKs' "pure ego" is part of the flim-flam "infomercial" trickery. "Adopt this mask, wear this costume, talk this way, walk this way, think this way, and you too can have success/find peace/have soft manageable hair"".
See here about the idea of the "persona" - I am sure much will resonate with you as it does for me.