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=Dictionary=
Together with the [[pleasure principle]], the [[reality principle]] is, according to [[Freud]], one of the two principles governing the workings of the [[psyche]].
The [[reality principle]] modifies the [[pleasure principle]] by regulating the [[instinct]]ive search for [[pleasure]].
Under its influence, the search for [[pleasure]] ceases to be immediate as momentary and uncertain [[pleasure]]s are renounced in order to gain a more assured [[pleasure]] at a later [[stage]] (deferred gratification).
The quest for [[pleasure]] is thus modified so as to make it conform to the conditions imposed by [[external]] [[realities]].
The [[religious]] doctrine which holds that those who renounce earthly [[pleasure]]s can expect to be rewarded in the afterlife is viewed by [[Freud] as a [[projection]] of the [[reality principle]].
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According to [{Freud]], the [[psyche]] is at first regulated entirely by the [[pleasure principle]].
"Reality isn't just there so that we bump our heads up against the false paths along which the functioning of the pleasure principle leads us. In truth, we make reality out of pleasure."<ref>{{S7}} p.225</ref>
Respectively, the [[desire]] for immediate gratification vs. the [[deferral]] of that gratification.
