ABSTRACT
In the Freudian tradition of psychoanalysis, the “structural theory” is one of six metapsychological perspectives. In addition to the structural theory, David Rappaport and Merton M. Gill list the topographic theory, the dynamic theory, the economic theory, the genetic theory, and the adaptive theory (1967). Freud introduced the structural theory as an alternative to the topographic theory (Arlow and Brenner 1964). In contrast to the topographic theory, which describes conflicts between the conscious and the unconscious, the structural theory describes conflicts between the “id,” the “ego,” and the “superego.” Freud defines the ego as “reason and common sense” and the id as “the passions” (SE: 19: 25). The superego he defines as “conscience” (SE 21: 123).
