
For example, ego comes into play when someone is at a long meeting at work that doesn’t seem to come to an end anytime soon. Since the ego is heavily involved with reality, Freud interpreted that it is located in the conscious mind. This basically means that the ego will ultimately achieve its goal, however, it first ensures that the time and place to do so is, in fact, an appropriate one. How the ego manages to achieve needs is scientifically known as delayed gratification (Kendra, 2019, p. The ego operates under the reality principle and tries its hardest to ensure that the task and desire being fulfilled is realistically possible.

According to Freud, ego is an alternate version of id as both of them have the same task of fulfilling human desires. The ego is the more mature and caring element since it is involved mostly with reality. This would be where the ego would jump in.Īs a child ages, the ego starts to develop. As it can be imagined life would be impossible if a person is always trying to meet their basic instinctual needs at that exact moment demanded by the id. It is also important to note that they continue to cry until their needs are fulfilled and their demands are satisfied. It is because of their id that infants cry when they become hungry or feel uncomfortable. How id is used in the real world can be seen through the actions of an infant. Because of its constant strive for gratification, Freud interpreted that the id is located in the unconscious mind. These basic needs and urges are ones such as thirst, hunger, sleep, comfort, and sex, which are what every human needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The id represents a person’s most basic needs however it needs its demand satisfied without care for anything or anyone.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, making it the most immature and childlike element out of the three. The first component that we are born with according to Freud is the id.
