Wo Es war, soll Ich werden

Wo Es war, soll Ich werden (English: “Where it was, shall I become” / “Where id was, ego shall be”) is one of the most frequently cited and debated formulations in the work of Sigmund Freud. Introduced in his late theoretical writings, the phrase condenses a central aim of psychoanalytic treatment: a transformation in the subject’s relation to unconscious processes. Rather than proposing the elimination of the unconscious, Freud uses the formulation to articulate the possibility that the ego (Ich, “I”) may come to assume greater responsibility for psychic regions previously dominated by the id (Es, “It”).

The phrase has since become a touchstone in Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis, playing a significant role in debates about the goals of therapy, the structure of the psyche, and the ethical implications of analytic work.

Definition and origin

Freud introduces “Wo Es war, soll Ich werden” near the conclusion of New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933), written after the development of his structural model of the psyche, which distinguishes among the id, ego, and superego. In this context, the formulation serves as a metaphor for psychic change brought about through psychoanalytic treatment rather than as a technical definition or slogan.

Freud presents the phrase as a concise expression of the therapeutic task of analysis: to alter the internal distribution of psychic forces so that areas governed by unconscious processes may enter into a new relation with conscious thought and responsibility.

Text and translation

The original German reads:

Wo Es war, soll Ich werden

Although syntactically simple, the sentence is conceptually dense. Each term carries metapsychological significance:

• Es (“It”): refers to the id, the domain of unconscious drives, wishes, and repressed contents.
• Ich (“I”): designates the ego, the agency of mediation, judgment, and reality-testing.
• war (“was”): indicates a prior psychic condition dominated by unconscious processes.
• soll (“shall” or “ought to”): expresses an imperative or task rather than a prediction.
• werden (“to become”): emphasizes process and transformation, not substitution.

The most widely cited English rendering—“Where id was, there ego shall be”—derives from the Standard Edition of Freud’s works. However, many commentators prefer a more literal translation such as “Where it was, shall I become,” which preserves the first-person and ethical dimension of the German and avoids reducing the phrase to technical terminology.

Debates over translation reflect broader questions about how psychoanalysis conceptualizes subjectivity, psychic change, and responsibility.

Freud’s theoretical intent

Freud formulated “Wo Es war, soll Ich werden” while reflecting on both the ambitions and the limitations of psychoanalytic therapy. By this stage of his work, he had recognized that insight alone—the simple act of making unconscious material conscious—was often insufficient to resolve neurosis. Patients might intellectually understand the origins of their symptoms while remaining unable to change their relation to them.

The phrase therefore expresses a more dynamic conception of therapeutic change. Psychoanalysis does not aim to eradicate unconscious forces but to reorganize the psyche so that the ego can tolerate, negotiate, and take responsibility for unconscious wishes and conflicts previously managed through repression.

Freud’s hope was that such a reorganization could mitigate neurotic suffering by reducing the rigidity of defensive structures and enabling greater flexibility in psychic life.

Meaning and theoretical interpretation

At first glance, the formulation may appear to propose a simple replacement of the id by the ego, or the triumph of rational consciousness over unconscious chaos. This interpretation, often associated with later ego-psychological readings, treats the phrase as an ideal of ego strengthening, mastery, and adaptation.

However, Freud’s own writings complicate this view. He repeatedly emphasized that the ego itself is partly unconscious and that conflict is a permanent feature of psychic life. The subject implied by “Wo Es war, soll Ich werden” is therefore not an omnipotent or transparent self, but one better able to recognize, contain, and assume responsibility for internal division.

The modal verb soll underscores that this transformation is an ongoing task, not a final state of harmony or mastery.

Clinical implications

In clinical terms, “Wo Es war, soll Ich werden” summarizes the aim of psychoanalytic work as psychic transformation rather than symptom suppression. Freud envisioned analysis as a process through which unconscious material is made available for working-through instead of remaining split off, acted out, or expressed solely through symptoms.

This process involves:

• bringing unconscious material into speech through interpretation;
• modifying defenses and addressing resistance;
• strengthening the ego’s capacity to tolerate ambivalence, desire, and conflict over time.

The “I” that is to “become” where the “It” was is not a sovereign subject in full control, but one capable of sustaining a relation to the unconscious without disintegration. The goal is increased intelligibility and capacity for psychic work, not the abolition of unconscious life.

Later interpretations and Lacanian re-readings

In post-Freudian psychoanalysis, the phrase was frequently invoked to support ideals of ego maturity, rationality, and adaptation. Jacques Lacan offered a decisive critique of this tendency.

Lacan rejected the identification of Freud’s Ich with a coherent, self-transparent ego. Instead, he emphasized the divided nature of the subject, constituted through language and structured by the unconscious. From this perspective, Lacan argued that Freud’s phrase should be read as referring not to ego mastery, but to the emergence of the subject at the point where unconscious determination had previously spoken through symptoms or acting out.

For Lacan, “Where it was, shall I become” names an ethical task of subjectivization: assuming one’s unconscious desire within the symbolic order rather than mastering it.

Debates and misunderstandings

Because of its brevity and rhetorical force, “Wo Es war, soll Ich werden” has often been misinterpreted as a slogan for rational self-control or Enlightenment-style domination of instinct. Some critics have read it as evidence that Freud sought to subordinate the unconscious entirely to reason.

Such interpretations overlook Freud’s repeated insistence on the persistence of unconscious life and the inevitability of psychic conflict. Rather than calling for control or eradication, the phrase articulates a tension at the heart of psychoanalysis between unconscious determination and subjective responsibility. It expresses not a promise of mastery, but a demand for transformation.

See also

Unconscious Id

Ego Repression

Neurosis Subject of the unconscious