Mara is psychological in origin right? Is it the ego-process, sensing its demise, and trying to cling on for dear life?

In my confusing middle-path daily life (sensory experience pretty wonderful; life in the toilet), when my ego-thought process pipes up with it's repetitive status-seeking horseshit, ('thought' is probably too generous) I've taken to just noting it as 'mara'. Is this a valid insight technique?

Just try and remember what thoughts happened before stress occurs. It's thinking about likes and dislikes (dislikes mostly) and even more a rating of self-worth. If you like or dislike a self-image you'll have a chemical experience every time you self-reference just like you would objects outside of yourself. Perception of what to like and dislike is huge in rigid thinking. People can just tell you that you should like or dislike something and it can affect you before you even experience something and make up your own mind. If you're trying to investigate what thoughts happened before the stress happened then you've stopped clinging/ruminating. It interrupts the stories before the stress builds too high.

Mara is just the addictive part of the brain wanting to release enjoyable chemicals on endless repeat, and punish you with stress chemicals like a carrot and a stick. It's also habitual thinking in that it will take a while for the habits to die down as you prevent feeding them.

True story: I went to a strip club once and asked her name:

Her: "My name is Mara"
Me: "...That's your name...???"
Me: "Mara is the trickster Buddhist deity of desire, ego and delusion"
Her: "That's me!"