A Freudian concept used to describe one of the fundamental ways in which the psyche develops from infantile, instinctual functioning based on attaining pleasure, the pleasure principle, to a more mature and modulated functioning based on the demands of reality.
The reality principle develops secondarily in relation to the pleasure principle. If the pleasure principle represents the psyche’s orientation to attaining pleasure, then the reality principle can be said to represent the psyche’s adjustment to the demands of reality, whether or not these demands lead to pleasure or pleasurable experiences. In this sense, the reality principle is the infant’s movement towards maturation in that maturity is constituted by the ability to accept and adapt to reality, both frustrating and rewarding aspects of reality. The infant is increasingly able to observe and to accept that reality is not always gratifying or what the infant.
