Ego-ideal meaning

In psychoanalysis, the part of one's ego that contains an idealized self based on those people, especially parents and peers, one admires and wishes to emulate.

The ego's conception of a better or more successful future self, based on identification with parents or parental substitutes.

In psychoanalytic theory, a part of the psyche that consists of an idealized self, the self one wants ideally to be.