The Ego remembers, evaluates, plans, responds to the world and acts in and on it. It integrates the inner world with the outer world, the Id with the Superego. This means that it is in charge of delaying satisfaction and gratification. It postpones acts intended to secure such gratification until they can be carried out both safely and successfully. The Ego is, therefore, in an ungrateful position.
Unfulfilled desires produce unease and anxiety.
Reckless fulfillment of desires is diametrically opposed to self-preservation. The Ego has to mediate these tensions. In an effort to thwart anxiety, the Ego invents defense mechanisms. On the one hand the Ego channels fundamental drives. It must have a primitive, infantile, component.