According to [psychoanalytic theory] we start life with an id—importunate, randy and aggressive; acquire an ego—intelligent, perceptive and diplomatic; and then, if all goes well, become blessed (or saddled) with a superego—the source of conscience and moral imperatives. The functional relationships between these three components suggest a view of man which, according to one description, seems particularly appropriate in the context of this book. ‘Man is basically a battlefield . . . a dark cellar in which a well-bred spinster lady and a sex-crazed monkey are for ever engaged in mortal combat, the struggle being refereed by a rather nervous bank clerk.’

Norman F. Dixon, On The Psychology of Military Incompetence (1976)