ABSTRACT
In The Ego and the Id Freud introduces his “second topography”, popularly known as the “structural model”, in a self-proclaimed attempt to further develop “some trains of thought which he opened up in Beyond the Pleasure Principle”. With respect to the formal aspect, the central trait will turn out to be the text’s depiction of psychical dynamics through anthropomorphic language. Despite Ego and Id’s complexity, prominent commentators agree in stressing a tendency towards duality in its depiction of the Freud, whereby seemingly conflicting characteristics are, once again, seamlessly interwoven. Freud himself explains the introduction of his new model as a consequence of his discovery that the I’s defences against the id’s drives is unconscious, blurring the categorical differentiations between Pcs. and Ucs. Physiologists should think twice before positioning the drive for self-preservation as the cardinal drive of an organic being.
