A small wooden figure casts two shadows in opposite directions across cracked orange ground.

Original artwork, not a still

Sigmund Freud

The ego is not master in its own house.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The claim is that the conscious self is not in full control of its own mind. Something else operates in that same house, so a person's thoughts and actions are shaped by forces they neither command nor entirely see.

Context reviewed

Share this quote