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In the solipsistic Berkeleian view, man is totally independent of the environment and totally dependent on the forces and images residing within him. By contrast in the Cartesian view, man is born with a 'clean slate' upon which experience writes: he is totally dependent on the outside world and free from
internal forces which, in this concept, do not exist. Observation confirms neither of these views, but suggests a relative independence of the ego from both id and external reality. This independence from the id is referred to as the autonomy of the ego from the id, and the independence from external stimulation may be referred to as the autonomy of the ego from external reality. The autonomy of the ego from the id is guaranteed by the inborn apparatuses that differentiate into the ego's means of orientation, of reality-testing, and of action. These are the memory apparatus, the motor apparatus, the perceptual apparatus, and the threshold apparatuses, and are called the apparatuses of primary autonomy. The primary guarantees of the ego's autonomy from the id are, therefore, the very apparatuses that guarantee the organism's adaptation to the environment. The second guarantees of ego autonomy from the id are the apparatuses of secondary autonomy which are formed as a result of learning. The ultimate guarantees of the ego's autonomy from the environment are the instinctual drives which guarantee the persistence of, for example, pathological behavior countermanded by the environment. The proximal guarantees of the ego's autonomy from the environment are the cognitive organizations, ego interests, values, ideals, ego identity, and superego influences, which also play a causal role in the persistence of many behavior forms.
The ego's autonomy from the id is interfered with when the instinctual drives are intensified, as during adolescence or the climacteric. It is interfered with also in situations of sensory deprivation (during Hebb's experiments, for examp