When you understand the extent of the grip that the ego has on human beings it becomes much easier to understand human behaviour. You realise that, for instance, when one person lashes out at another or puts down another, this is merely his ego projecting its fears, guilt and inadequacies onto others so that he can feel better about himself.  A person who seems to be very controlling is simple being ruled by an ego that is fighting for power to ensure its own survival. This is because the ego has created a finite and limited world and it therefore believes there is not enough of everything to go around. So it tries to grab as much as possible for itself. This could be money, power, possessions, the attention of another, etc.  Actually, all the rivalry that we see in the world stems from the ego, i.e., sibling rivalry, jealousy between school children, competitiveness between sportsmen and rivalry at the work place and at the national and international levels.

So, A Course in Miracles can be seen as being a course on both spirituality and psychology because it gives us a very good insight into human behaviour. And if we remember that we are motivated either by love or by fear, then we realise that most human actions and reactions are based on fear. A quick glance at a newspaper would be enough to prove that they are not usually based on love. The importance of ACIM is that it is urging us to turn from fear to love by practising the 365 lessons in the Workbook as well as studying the Text to gain further understanding of the radical forgiveness that Jesus is asking us to apply in our lives in all situations.