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In the course of Freud's writings the concept 'ego' underwent numerous changes. Psycho-analysts are not always aware of the numerous drawbacks of using the word 'ego' and attaching to it not a general but a specific meaning; hence they speak of the reality ego, the defensive ego, the organizing, the rational, the social ego. Since psycho-analysis aims at a final integration with general psychology the concept ego should be taken as a general one, and when the term is used as a 'partial concept', such use should not contradict the general meaning.
The interdependence of id and ego can be shown from the influences which the ego exerts on the id. The ego imposes on the id changes of aims and of the modes of energy. Desexualization and a similar process in respect of the aggressive drive are examples of this. On the other hand instincts lend some patterns for the development of the ego's defence mechanisms. Individual variations of ego development can be observed which have a decisive influence on the instincts, e.g. on the timing of the emergence of the partial drives and the forms in which these partial drives manifest themselves (instinct development). Sleep and psychoses are well suited for the study of early ego development. The id-ego relationship can further be elicited through the study of the development of the body ego and of object-relationships. The most profound knowledge of the id-ego relationship has come from the understanding of psychic conflicts. Closer exploration has led the author to formulate his findings in terms of the 'non-conflictual sphere of the ego'. This sphere is a potent determinant of the methods by which instinctual stimuli are dealt with.
At the onset of extrauterine life there exists neither an id nor an ego in the sense in which these terms have been used in psycho-analysis; an undifferentiated phase has to be assumed to operate at first. This view agrees with Freud's own formulations. How the differentiation of ego and id