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Quotation from The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud
“in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider seeks to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces”
The Ego and the Id, Ch. II, 'The Ego and the Id', trans. Joan Riviere (1927)
Freud's best-known image for the ego's control of movement; he adds that a rider often has to guide the horse where it wants to go.
Citation: "in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider seeks to do so with his own strength while the ego uses borrowed forces" — Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id, Ch. II, 'The Ego and the Id', trans. Joan Riviere (1927). (id freud-the-ego-and-the-id-q3)
