Freud Civilization & Its Discontents.
Freud defines the id as being a general mass of sensations. What he means by this is that there are, at this stage, no boundaries between external environment and oneself. The id according to Freud is the only part that is present at birth. At this stage a person doesn't understand how their actions have anything to do with, or affect their surrounding environment and vice versa. Thus, their actions might or might not conflict with the standards and norms that society has placed on the individual. The ego is that agency which acts as an intermediary between the id and the external world. It is charged with gaining control over the demands of the instincts and choosing not only which ones to satisfy, but when to satisfy them as well. The ego is formed from the id through the pleasure and reality principles. The pleasure principle is explained as pain out, pleasure in. This results in the human desire of trying to obtain as much pleasure in life as possible with the least amount of discomfort. Once the ego is formed, a person gains a sense of understanding that there is an outside world and that they must conform their actions to fit those boundaries, which are set by society. In addition, they begin to understand that when they can't always get the object that gives them pleasure, they must adjust their desires to fit that environment. They begin by altering their physical environment and then their social environment. The ego not only has to balance the id with reality, but also with the superego. This superego which Freud refers to is that agency which is formed over time by the parents, and later on, the society of the individual. Its function is to observe, judge, and threaten the ego with punishment just like the parents whose place it has taken (as the individual grows older). We generally would refer to it as our conscience. As it is stated in the book, The tension between the harsh super - ego and the ego that is subjected to it .
