A nurse is working with a patient who wants needs to be met and is impatient and demanding when these needs are not met immediately. How should the nurse interpret this finding according to Freud?

A) The id is functioning.
B) The ego is functioning.
C) The superego is functioning.
D) The Oedipus complex is functioning.

The id is functioning. The id (i.e., basic instinctual impulses driven to achieve pleasure) is the most primitive part of the personality and originates in the infant. The infant, in this case the patient, cannot tolerate delay and must have needs met immediately. The ego represents the reality component, mediating conflicts between the environment and the forces of the id. The ego helps people judge reality accurately, regulate impulses, and make good decisions. The third component, the superego, performs regulating, restraining, and prohibiting actions. Often referred to as the conscience, the superego is influenced by the standards of outside social forces (e.g., parent or teacher). The child fantasizes about the parent of the opposite sex as his or her first love interest, known as the Oedipus or Electra complex. By the end of this stage, the child attempts to reduce this conflict by identifying with the parent of the same sex as a way to win recognition and acceptance.