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Ego

Also known as Ichdas Ichmoi

In Freud's structural model, the agency that mediates between the drives of the id, the demands of the super-ego and the external world. It is the part of the id modified by perception and consciousness, 'first and foremost a bodily ego', and governs motility, reality-testing and defence, much of it unconsciously. Freud had used 'das Ich' throughout his work for the self or the defending part of the personality; Das Ich und das Es (1923) made it one agency among three. Ego psychology later centred psychoanalysis on its functions.

Broader concept: Structural model
Key works: 2

developed by

Sigmund Freud 1923 Freud had spoken of the ego since the 1890s as the agency that repels incompatible ideas; in Das Ich und das Es it becomes one of three agencies, a part of the id modified by the outside world, largely unconscious, first and foremost a bodily ego, and a 'poor creature' serving three masters: the id, the super-ego and reality.