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In psychoanalytic theory, the most primitive, unconscious element of human personality.

Sigmund Freud believed that human personality consisted of three components: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the part of the personality that includes such basic biological impulses or drives as eating, drinking, eliminating wastes, avoiding pain, attaining sexual pleasure, and aggression. The id operates on the "pleasure principle," seeking to satisfy these basic...