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In describing the characteristics of the instinctual drives, the “functions” of the id have in part already been indicated. Enumerating the various functions ascribed to the id would mean abstracting not only most of the psychoanalytic literature but every psychoanalytic case history. I shall therefore examine only representative formulations.
The most common formulation is that the id “strives” for the satisfaction of what Freud called the individual organism's innate needs (1940, p. 148). The id therefore exerts pressure (see Chapter 4) on the ego to mediate the gratification of these needs. These needs are “rooted in instinctual drives and their vicissitudes” (Hartmann, Kris, and Loewenstein, 1946, p. 31). It follows that they include all the strivings of libido and aggression. Both libido and aggression, in the broadest meaning of these concepts, are integral parts of every aspect of mental functioning. Their manifestations in ideation, affects, thoughts, fantasies, and so forth, depend, on the one hand, on various degrees of instinctual fusion, and, on the other, on the influence of various ego functions (neutralization, reality testing, defenses, etc.).
The id-drives-strivings-demands-derivatives, whatever we may call them (I purposely avoid the term “wishes” before discussing the essential meaning of this crucial concept), need an object for their gratification (discharge). Object relations in all their complexity therefore always have an “id element.”