Reality Principle - History

History

Psychoanalytic psychologist Sigmund Freud proposed that “an ego thus educated has become ‘reasonable’; it no longer lets itself be governed by the pleasure principle, but obeys the reality principle, which also seeks to obtain pleasure, but pleasure which is assured through taking account of reality, even though it is pleasure postponed and diminished”.

It was Freud who was responsible for, if not creating, at least popularizing the concept of the unconscious as the largest and most influential part of the mind. The role of the unconscious, according to Freud, is to encompass all the things that are not easily available to awareness, including drives or instincts, and repressed memories and emotions. Freud believed the unconscious to be the source of our motivations, whether they be desires for food, sex, or neurotic tendencies. He noted that despite the desire behind these drives, humans are often forced to deny these motives, leaving them to often only present themselves in disguised form.

In 1915 at the University of Vienna, Freud presented a series of lectures introducing psychoanalysis, one in which he discussed the reality principle. He delivered a total of twenty-eight lectures and in the twenty-third lecture, Freud began a discussion over the conflict between the realm of "Phantasy" and the reality principle. In this influential lecture, Freud explained how the ego represents reality, and to a certain extent, reason in its fulfillment of its purpose to restrain the id's desires. He concluded that "there is a path from Phantasy to Reality - the path, that is, art." Some of Freud's ideas may be faulty and others not easily testable, but Freud was a peerless observer of the human condition, and enough of what he proposed, particularly concerning the reality principle, manifests itself in daily life.