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Primary sourceBook1923

The Ego and the Id

Sigmund Freud · 1923

Freud's 1923 essay introducing his structural model of the mind: id, ego, and super-ego.

Freud's own essay introducing the id-ego-super-ego model central to his theory of the mind.

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Title page of a book on yellowed paper. Centered small capital text reads 'SIGM. FREUD' above the bold German title 'Das Ich und das Es'. Faint marks and spots are visible on the page.
Sigmund Freud, Das Ich und das Es, title page, 1923.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of Das Ich und das Es, an essay by Sigmund Freud first published in 1923. It presents his model of the psyche as divided into the id, the ego, and the super-ego.

Why it matters

This essay reshaped psychoanalytic theory by describing the mind as a system of competing forces: unconscious drives (the id), the conscious self (the ego), and an internalized moral authority (the super-ego). It became one of the most influential frameworks in the history of psychology, still referenced today even by people who have never read Freud directly.

Look closer

  • Why might Freud have compared the ego and id to a rider and a horse?
  • What questions does dividing the mind into three parts help answer, and what might it leave out?
  • How might such abstract theories be tested or challenged?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sigmund Freud on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Sigmund Freud · 1905

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Sigmund Freud · 1930

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Sigmund Freud's Voice (BBC Broadcast Recording, 1938)

Sigmund Freud · 27 December 1938

Black-and-white studio portrait of an older bearded man in a three-piece suit with a watch chain, holding a cigar in his raised left hand and his right hand in his trouser pocket, against a dark backdrop.Photograph

Primary source

Portrait of Sigmund Freud

Max Halberstadt

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