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}}</ref> At the same time, Freud concedes that as the ego "attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the ''Ucs.'' [Unconscious] commands of the id with its own ''Pcs.'' [Preconscious] [[Rationalization (making excuses)|rationalizations]], to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess...to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding."<ref name="Freud, p. 110">Freud, ''New Introductory Lectures'' p. 110</ref>
The ego comprisesdoes not comprise of that organised part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defence, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.<ref name="Snowden"/> The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organise our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.<ref name="Snowden"/>"The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world ... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces."<ref>Freud,''The Ego and the Id'', ''On Metapsychology'' p. 363-4</ref> Still worse, "it serves three severe masters...the external world, the super-ego and the id."<ref name="Freud, p. 110"/> Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. "Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles...[in] bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it," and readily "breaks out in anxiety — realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id."<ref>Freud, ''New Introductory Lectures'' p. 110-1</ref> It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of [[guilt]], [[anxiety]], and inferiority.
To overcome this the ego employs [[defense mechanism]]s. The defense mechanisms are not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our impulses that are threatening.<ref name="Meyers">{{cite book
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