The id consists of all the inherited components of personality, including sex drives and aggression. The id seeks immediate gratification of primitive impulses. It operates on the Pleasure Principle, seeking to avoid pain and maximize gratification.

If tangible gratification of the primitive impulses are unavailable, the id may form a mental image or hallucination to reduce the tension of ungratified desire - for example a starving man may form a mental image of a delicious meal. That is an example of what Freud termed wish fulfillment.

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