The Ego

The ego represents the conscious self. Through it the id is kept in touch with real­ity with the external world about it. Through the perceptual apparatus of the hu­man organism, the ego sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels what is going on about it. The ego acts in terms of the reality principle, which is an important characteristic of adult behavior. The ego gradually develops and gains strength in the course of the individ­ual's growing up and becoming educated in the ways of the world.

But the ego is frequently under pressure to satisfy the id This it cannot always do. any more than a parent can completely satisfy all the demands of a child. The relationship of the id to the ego has been aptly described as that of the horse to the rider. The rider di­rects the  horse with   more or less success. Sometimes, however, the horse is balky. He runs away; he may even throw the rider. In other words, the pleasure principle often de­fies and sometimes dethrones the reality principle.

The ego is almost the whole of the conscious mind and it is the seat of the higher faculties of the mind. However, a large part of the ego is submerged in the unconscious mind. A traffic of sensations, thought, and memories back and forth between the conscious and the un­conscious passes over the highways and nerve pathways of the ego- Not all thoughts and feelings pass with equal freedom. The ego pi aces barriers  defenses  against unwel­come impulses entering consciousness. We shall have much more to say about these ego defenses, or mental mechanisms, later on in this chapter.

The important characteristics of the ego learned in the process of growing up are that it is in constant touch with external reality; that it can learn by experience; that it can interpose thought between wish and act; that and feelings; and that it can be reasonable.