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Groddeck argued that "what we call the ego behaves essentially passively in [[life]], and ... we are 'lived' by unknown and uncontrollable forces,"<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Ego and the Id]]''. 1923b. [[SE]] XIX. p. 23</ref> and used the term ''[[das Es]]'' to denote these forces.

The term first appears in [[Freud]]'s [[work ]] in the early 1920s, in the context of the second [[model ]] of the [[psyche]]; in this model, the [[psyche]] is [[divided ]] into [[three ]] [[agencies]]: the [[id]], the [[ego]] and the [[superego]].

The [[id]] corresponds roughly to what [[Freud]] called the [[unconscious|unconsicous system]] in his first model of the [[psyche]], but there are also important differences between these two [[concepts]].

[[Lacan]]'s main contribution to the [[theory ]] of the [[id]] is to stress that the "unknown and uncontrollable forces" in question are not [[primitive ]] [[biological]] [[need]]s or wild [[instinct]]ual forces of [[nature]], but must be conceived of in [[linguistic]] [[terms]]:

<blockquote>The ''Es'' with which anlaysis analysis is concerned is made of the [[signifier ]] which is already there in the [[real]], the uncomprehended signifier. It is already there, but it is made of the signifier, it is not some kind of primitive and confused property relevant to some kind of pre-established [[harmony]]...<ref>{{S4}} p. 49</ref></blockquote>

Thus whereas Groddeck states that "the [[affirmation ]] 'I live' is only conditionally correct, it expresses only a small and superficial part of the fundamental [[principle ]] 'Man is lived by the It,'"<ref>Groddeck, Georg. ''The Book of the It'', [[London]]: [[Vision ]] Press, 1949 [1923]. p. 5</ref>, [[Lacan]]'s view could be summed up in similar terms, only replacing the verb "to live" with the verb "to [[speak]]"; the affirmation "I speak " is only a superifical part of the fundamental principle "Man is spoken by it."

The [[symbolic]] nature of the [[id]], beyond the [[imaginary]] [[sense ]] of [[self]]-constituted by the [[ego]], is what leads [[Lacan]] to equate it with the term "[[subject]]". This equation is illustrated by the homophony between the [[German]] term ''[[Id|Es]]'' and the letter '''S''', which is [[Lacan]]'s [[symbol]] for the [[subject]].<ref>{{E}} p. 129</ref>

One of [[Freud]]'s most famous statements concerns the [[id]] and its [[relationship ]] with [[psychoanalytic treatment]]; ''[[Wo Es war, soll Ich werden]]'' (which the [[Standard Edition]] renders "Where id was, there ego shall be.")<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis]]''. 1933a. [[SE]] XXII. p. 80</ref>

One common [[reading ]] of this cryptic [[statement ]] has been to take it as [[meaning ]] that the task of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is to enlarge the field of [[consciousness]]; it is just such a reading that is crystallized in the original [[French]] [[translation ]] of [[Freud]]'s statement - ''le moi doit déloger le ça'' (the [[ego]] shall dislodge the [[id]]).

[[Lacan]] is completely opposed to such a reading.<ref>{{S1}} p. 195</ref>, arguing instead that the [[word ]] ''soll'' is to be [[understood ]] as an [[ethics|ethical injunction]], so that the [[end of analysis|aim]] of [[analysis]] is for the [[ego]] to submit to the [[autonomy]] of the [[symbolic order]].

Thus [[Lacan]] prefers to translate [[Freud]]'s statement as "there where it was, or there where one was ... it is my [[duty ]] that I should come into being" [''Là où c'était, peut-on [[dire]], là où s'était . . . c'est mon devoir que je vienne à être''].<ref>{{E}} p. 129, 299-300; [[Ec]] p. 417-8</ref>

The [[end of analysis]], according to this view, is thus a kind of "existential [[recognition]]" of the [[symbolic]] determinants of one's [[being]], a recognition of the fact that "You are this" (You are this [[signifying chain|symbolic chain]], and no more).<ref>{{S1}} p. 3</ref>

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