id.

abbreviation

idem

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In Latin, id means simply "it". Sigmund Freud (and his translator) brought the word into the modern vocabulary as the name of what Freud believed to be one of the three basic elements of the human personality, the other two being the ego and the superego. According to Freud, the id is the first of these to develop, and is the home of the body's basic instincts, particularly those involving sex and aggression. Since the id lacks logic, reason, or even organization, it can contain conflicting impulses. Primitive in nature, it wants to be satisfied immediately. Although its workings are completely unconscious, Freud believed that its contents could be revealed in works of art, in slips of the tongue ("Freudian slips"), and in one's dreams.