Id

Our id is the enemy, isn't it? The enemy of our efforts to grow up and develop into happy people, in harmony with our environment and the people in it? It makes us short-sighted, self-centered, and impatient. It makes us hateful, hurtful, and harmful. Having the discipline to keep it at bay would seem to be the cornerstone of being a good person.

But looking at it with yourself in isolation, ignoring your environment, the id gives us reminders of what we need. Its instincts serve only itself, but it counterbalances pressures, or compulsions, to be unduly self-sacrificing and neglectful of our own needs. Those "needs" should always be in question, because the id is often driven by anger or fear, but every now and then we need to be reminded that we have legitimate drives and boundaries that shouldn't be forgotten. For affection. For belonging. For safety.