Id,
ego, and
super-ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in
Sigmund Freud's structural model of the
psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction our mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the
id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the
super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the
ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the
id and the
super-ego. The
super-ego can stop one from doing certain things that one's
id may want to do.