Id, ego, and temporal lobe revisited

This chapter offers further data supporting the hypothesis that there is a physiological basis for Freud's theories about the framework of mind. Data were gathered during our experience with patients treated by the interdisciplinary surgical epilepsy group at the Medical College of Ohio beginning in 1970. In 1991, we presented a paper at An Historical Conference on Brain Functions Commemorating F. J. Gall (1791) and S. Freud (1891): Is There a Neurophysiological Basis for Freud's Hypothesis of Ego Structure? The following from the 1991 paper will provide the introduction to this chapter which expands on the hypothesis developed in the chapter The Id, the ego, and the temporal lobe by Ferguson and Rayport about the relevance of Freud's thinking for our observations in patients with temporolimbic epilepsy. Dr. Rayport's introduction, here presented, sets the stage for the presentation of our clinical findings by reviewing Freud's biography as pertaining to the development of his topographic theory of the structure of mind.