Reality Principle
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Reality Principle
The Reality Principle is a Survival Algorithm of the Physical Unit, specifically the Bodily Ego. The reality principle, first identified by Sigmund Freud), is the instinctual effort to survive.
List of Terms Coined or Defined by Sigmund Freud
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The reality principle is a powerful Driving Tendency designed and implemented to ensure the Physical Unit seeks conditions that support survival. Other aspects of the Physical Unit were designed in support of this drive.
Note that salutatory driving tendencies may be subverted by Conditioning and/or Ideology. Unless the Physical Unit is under severe threat or attack, the Bodily Ego will typically use thought to guide action. The Pleasure Principle may be thus circumvented by ideological statements, like "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," that suggest pain is salutatory. In situations where ideology has corrupted basic common sense, damage to the physical unit may occur, damage may accumulate, and Pathology may be the short, and certainly will be the long term, result.
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