Alter egos and friends

In one of his letters to his good friend Atticus, Cicero wrote: 'I am reproaching myself far more than you, and if I do reproach you it is as my alter ego'. By that, Cicero meant that Atticus was like a second self to him, a close and trusted friend.

Before Franz Mesmer and Freud buried the 'alter ego' in the folds of the human self, the 'alterity' of th…