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Introduction. Freud (3) first used the term, ‘id’, in his monograph, The Ego and the Id. Id represents the latin form of the word, it (das es), which Groddeck (10) had used to describe the impersonal part of the mental self, in contrast to the personal self (the I, ego, Ich).
According to Freud, the id has the following qualities (3, 4, 5, 6, 7):
The id is unconscious. It consists of images, chaos, a cauldron of seething excitement.
The id is that part of the mind which contains everything which is inherited, particularly the instincts. The instincts fill the id with energy and press for immediate satisfaction, but the id has no organization and no useful will. Its only purpose is to satisfy its innate needs.
There is no negation in the id, only desires which demand satisfaction.
The id knows no values, no good or evil, no morality.
When contradictory impulses occur, they may exist independently side by side. Such contradictory impulses do not detract from one another and cannot cancel each other, but continue by forming an intermediate aim, a compromise.
The processes of the id are not related to reality. They are subject only to the pleasure principle.
The processes of the id are timeless. An unfulfilled need remains unchanged regardless of the passage of time.