Sigmund Freud’s structural theory tries to understand a person’s inner conflicts by dividing the mind into three functional parts. These parts are not physical structures, but concepts used to describe mental functions.
Id
The id represents innate instinctual wishes and the tendency to seek immediate satisfaction. It does not take time, morality or reality into account.
Ego
The ego mediates between the id and the outside world. It assesses reality and helps with delaying, planning and making decisions.
Superego
The superego represents the values, rules and conscience a person has taken in. It also includes a person’s expectations of, and criticism toward, themselves.
Conflict and balance
The central idea of the theory is that these three functions sometimes conflict, and that the ego works to balance these conflicts. Such conflicts can show themselves through experiences such as anxiety, guilt or inner tension.
How is it read today?
The structural theory is one of the historical foundations of psychodynamic thinking. Contemporary psychodynamic approaches have updated and extended this model; in sessions these concepts are used not as labels, but as a language for thinking about the inner world.
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