CONSCIENCE AND SUPEREGO 409 



tinuously, as it were, as the psychological manifestations of 

 more basic vital processes. When an impulse — the raw material 

 of psychological life — arises, it is credited with creating a 

 psychological tension; when it is discharged through some 

 appropriate motor activity (as, for example, the infantile 

 impulse to suck may be satisfied by the breast) , the tension 

 is dissolved. This relief of tension is pleasure; the law of the 

 id is to seek it. Once an instinct has found an appropriate 

 means of satisfaction, it becomes attached to the activity, and 

 to the images and ideas of that activity, and henceforth is 

 oriented towards obtaining satisfaction continuously through 

 the same activity. 



It happens, however, in the course of his development, that 

 a child finds certain satisfactions prohibited, restricted, or pre- 

 vented — he is not allowed to take the breast, or not allowed 

 to keep it as long as he likes. He becomes more aware then 

 of the impingement of the outside world; he is forced to take 

 reality into account. Thus the ego begins to develop. The ego 

 comprises the perceptions of the outer world, the coherent 

 central processes of the individual, and the processes by which 

 conscious motor activities are carried out. The principle that 

 rules in the ego is reality; it relates man to the self he finds 

 himself to be and to his environment. Fundamentally, of 

 course, the ego is at the service of the id. Although it is attuned 

 to reality, its main function even in this regard is to locate 

 in reality the most appropriate means of satisfying instinctual 

 impulses for the id, while avoiding the disagreeable results 

 this satisfaction might sometimes entail. 



To obtain its proper results, the ego must ' censor ' the 

 instinctual movements of the id, that is, when the id demands 

 some satisfaction which the ego has learned is actually pro- 

 ductive of disagreeable results — pain, punishment, parental 

 disapproval — the ego must negate the id's demands. A con- 

 flict ensues when the ego refuses to execute the action sought 

 by the id. Eventually the ego refuses even to allow the idea 

 to remain in consciousness; it suppresses the idea. But the 



