Shrink Rap: How to Know Ego From False Pride

Dear Shrink Rap,

In one of your columns earlier this year, you talked about the importance of healthy ego strength for traders. You made an interesting distinction between healthy ego and what you called "false pride."

I've been trying to work with this distinction for months now, but it gets confusing. What I've been wondering is, how can I tell when I'm coming from healthy ego assertion vs. falling back on false pride? Thanks.

-- JNW ...