Who proposed that the ego is dependent on the id?

• A. Sigmund Freud
• B. Carl Jung
• C. Erik Erikson
• D. Alfred Adler

Answer: (A)

Freud’s framework assigns the ego a mediating role that arises from the id. The id holds basic drives and seeks immediate gratification, operating on the pleasure principle. The ego develops to manage those impulses within the constraints of reality, acting as the rational part that negotiates between the id’s desires and what the external world allows. In this view, the ego is dependent on the id for its energy and for the impulses it must regulate, using reality testing and defense mechanisms to channel those impulses in acceptable ways. The other theorists shifted focus to different ideas—Jung to the collective unconscious, Erikson to psychosocial development across life, and Adler to feelings of inferiority and social interest—without proposing that the ego stems from the id.