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An [[individual]]'s [[internal ]] [[reality ]] corresponds to a collection of [[processes]], representations, and affects that are essentially (but not only) [[unconscious]], which Sigmund [[Freud ]] referred to as "[[psychical ]] reality." It thus contains the representations of the [[world ]] that the [[subject ]] has formed, [[fantasies ]] stemming from unconscious desires, and [[universal ]] [[fantasy ]] [[structures]]: the [[primal ]] fantasies. For the [[analyst]], it has an [[existence ]] and efficiency that are comparable to [[physical ]] reality.[[External ]] reality, also called [[material ]] reality, subsumes the [[objects ]] of our physical [[environment]], the subject's [[body]], and the subject's inscribed [[place ]] in [[society]].These two [[concepts ]] [[exist ]] in a [[dialectical ]] and sometimes paradoxical relation throughout Freud's [[work]]. They presuppose a theorization of each one taken separately and of their interconnection. In [[other ]] [[words]], what is at stake is [[knowing ]] how material reality becomes internalized and how a reality that is initially completely [[subjective ]] is gradually constituted as external.In "Negation" (1925) Freud asserted, "What is bad, what is [[alien ]] to the ego and what is external are, to begin with, identical" (p. 237). According to him, [[external reality ]] always remains unknowable, like Immanuel [[Kant]]'s <i>[[Ding ]] an sich</i> ([[Thing]]-[[in-itself]]); but, like Kant, Freud did not adhere to George Berkeley's absolute [[idealism]], which essentially holds that there [[exists ]] only [[mental ]] reality. Actually, such a [[state ]] is only found in certain [[psychoses ]] ([[schizophrenia]], chronic delusional [[psychosis]], etc.), in which the movements of mental reality are taken for external reality (cf. [[hallucination]]). In [[neurosis]], these two [[topographical ]] spaces remain distinct, even if "psychical reality plays a dominant [[role]]," as Freud wrote in the <i>Introductory Lectures on [[Psychoanalysis]]</i> (1916-17b [1915-17]).

The [[theory ]] of the connection between the two [[orders ]] was adumbrated as early as 1891 in Freud's [[text ]] "On [[Aphasia]]: A Critical Study," where he distinguished between [[thing-presentations ]] and [[word]]-presentations. The unconscious contains only <i>Sachvorstellungen</i> (thing-presentations), whereas both forms of [[representation ]] are found in the [[preconscious ]] and the [[conscious]].In elaborating the [[idea ]] of mental reality Freud no [[doubt ]] drew upon the [[teachings ]] of the [[philosopher ]] Franz von Brentano (<i>[[Psychology ]] from an Empirical Standpoint</i>, 1874/1973). However, his first [[model ]] can justifiably be traced back to the 1895 "[[Project ]] for a [[Scientific ]] Psychology," where Freud invoked a "reality of thought [<i>Denkrealität</i>] that is [[autonomous ]] although dependent upon external reality." "Project for a Scientific Psychology," which Jean Guillaumin has called "a wide-ranging meditation on the [[relationship ]] between the Ego and the external world," deals with material reality by introducing the [[concept ]] of the "reality [[index]]," based on the perceptual neurons capable of apprehending external reality. The actual term "psychical reality" appears for the first [[time ]] in 1909 in an addendum to the second edition of <i>The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams]]</i>. Not until the 1919 edition was the

now-classic [[distinction ]] between "psychical reality" and "material reality" finally posited.Throughout his writings Freud attempted to specify the laws of the functioning of [[psychic ]] reality and to shed light on its dialectical connection with external reality. In "Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning" (1911), he asserted that in the earliest [[stages ]] of [[life ]] the subject is dominated by the [[pleasure ]] [[principle ]] and [[hallucinatory ]] [[satisfaction]]. But the failure of this as a means of attaining satisfaction forces the [[infant ]] to "[[represent ]] for itself the [[real ]] state of the external world." Thought, which is originally unconscious, is [[split]]: One part remains under the [[control ]] of the [[pleasure principle ]] and constructs fantasies; the other part, with [[language]], becomes conscious and capable of judging whether a representation belongs to internal, psychic reality or to the external reality of the world. Thus psychic reality functions under the yoke of [[instinct ]] and according to the laws of the primary processes. Unaware of time or negation, these representations and affects are [[displaced ]] and condensed according to the flow of [[cathexis]]. Ever concerned with shedding light on the connections that exist between this internal reality and the external world, Freud then introduced, in "A [[Case ]] of [[Paranoia ]] Running Counter to the [[Psycho]]-[[Analytic ]] Theory of the Disease" (1915), the idea of "[[primal fantasies]]." These "constitute" a treasure of organizing "schemas" of all fantasies and are in a [[sense ]] the hard core of psychic reality ([[Jean Laplanche ]] and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, 1985).By postulating that the primal fantasies are phylogenetic in origin, an idea he would [[defend ]] until his [[death]], Freud re-enmeshed external reality and psychic reality. What had once been prehistoric reality later became part of psychic reality. In any case, in Freud's view, in "An [[Outline ]] of Psychoanalysis" (1940 [1938]), external reality must forever remain "unknowable," just as a "quantity of (unconscious) processes are themselves unknowable." He concluded this work by emphasizing the function of the internalized external world constituted by the [[superego ]] that "reunites the influences of the [[present ]] and the [[past]]."

Since then, numerous [[psychoanalysts]], inspired in [[particular ]] by the writings of Melanie [[Klein]], have developed the idea of psychic reality, most often on the basis of work on psychosis: Michael [[Balint]], Donald [[Winnicott]], Wilfred Bion—who emphasized the [[hatred ]] the [[psychotic ]] [[patient ]] feels for realities—and Piera Aulagnier, with the concept of historical reality. In [[France]], Jacques [[Lacan ]] took up this thematics with his 1953 introduction of the [[category ]] of the real, as distinct from reality. In his 1975 [[seminar ]] "R.S.I.," he defined [[the Real ]] as "what is [[impossible ]] to subjectivize." A stopping point for thought, it supposedly appears in psychosis and irrupts at the end of the cure.During the same period, Serge Viderman in <i>La [[Construction ]] de l'espace [[analytique]]</i> (Construction of the analytical [[space]]; 1970) argued that "the reality of events is of no importance to the analyst, whose [[duty ]] it is to invent it." By [[stating ]] it to the patient, the analyst in a sense brings this reality into existence. The [[event ]] or its trace is argued to be at most the grain of sand around which fantasies are formed, like the pearl around an impurity. Thus Freud invented a new reality, constrained by the "[[epistemological ]] [[necessity]]" of delimiting his [[object ]] of study and his field of [[action]]. Although the [[notion ]] of psychic reality is no longer contested today, and although all [[analysts ]] recognize its heuristic [[value]], fundamental divergences exist among the various conceptions relating to the articulation of internal and external realities.Adherence to a physical realism has led many practitioners to invoke [[social ]] and material reality from a [[normative ]] perspective (Heinz [[Hartmann]], 1956). Explaining [[symptoms ]] only in [[terms ]] of real events and advocating [[adaptation ]] to reality are a contemporary trend in psychotherapeutic practices that retain from the analytic approach [[nothing ]] but the adjective in which it is tricked out.[[Another ]] [[theoretical ]] and [[practical ]] current advocates the bracketing of external and historical reality (Lacan, Viderman). Beyond their divergences, these theorists share the same [[desire ]] to [[master ]] the [[domain ]] of the [[psyche ]] whose purity cannot be altered by any factual opacity. Today, most analysts are in agreement on a principle of "undecidability" (Daniel Widlöcher, Jean Guillaumin, Haydée Faimberg, etc.) as to what should be attributed to material reality and what comes from psychic reality. Deeper [[understanding ]] of the notion of the primal (Aulagnier) and transcultural studies show that "the [[infantile]], [[culture]], and the characteristic of the object," as Maurice Dayan expressed it in <i>[[Inconscient ]] et Réalité</i> (Unconscious and reality; 1985)—in other words, external reality—organize the subject's psychic reality in their own way.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1891b). On aphasia: A critical study. (E. Stengel, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press, 1953.

# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1974-1975). Le Séminaire-Livre XXII, R.S.I. Jacques-[[Alain ]] [[Miller ]] (ed.). [[Ornicar]]?, 2-5.# Laplanche, Jean, and Pontalis, Jean-Bertrand. (1974). The language of psycho-[[analysis]]. (Donald Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1967)