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Defined by Freud as a process which allows the [[individual]] to distinguish between external stimuli and internal stimuli from within the psyche, and to establish the vital inner/outer [[distinction]].
[[Reality]]-testing is a [[defence]] against [[hallucination]] and the confusion of what is actually perceived and what is imagined.
Reality-testing is one of the major functions of the ego.
'[[Reality testing]]' is defined as the [[process]] through which the [[psyche]] gauges the [[difference]] between the [[internal]] and [[external]] [[world]]s.
Acccording to [[Freud]], the [[process]] of [[reality testing]] is a function of the [[ego]], founded on [[perception]] and [[motility]].
In ''[[A Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of Dreams]]'' (1915), [[Freud]] describes the [[process]] of [[reality testing]] as a way for the [[psyche]] to determine whether the [[experience]] it is undergoing is [[present]] or is the [[recall]] of a previous one.
The [[need]] for both of these [[concepts]] in [[psychoanalysis]] stems from the psyche's proclivity to hallucinate. If a previous experience is hallucinated, [[meaning]] made present to perception by the [[action]] of intense [[instinctual]] [[cathexis]], this may fog up the ego's capacities to differentiate between [[past]] and present, internal and external, and thus require it to refer to the intensity of the cathexis to differentiate between actual perception and hallucination.
In Freud's inaugural [[texts]], the ego's capacity to make and [[change]] [[cathexes]] devolves upon reality testing. In the texts that followed, this capacity was assumed by perception, which conveys [[external reality]] inward (1911b), then motility, which enables flight from extreme sources of [[excitation]] and thereby enables the ego to differentiate the excitation from internal sources (1916-1917f).
However, all of these [[processes]] assume means that cannot be used in the [[psychoanalytic]] [[session]], where motility and perception are in large part suspended. Freud's successors, [[Winnicott]] in [[particular]], have therefore emphasized [[another]] process that contributes to distinguishing the realm of [[fantasy]] and differentiating internal and external realities. This process is based on the fact that external reality resists fantasized [[destruction]] and is not destroyed by it. Reality, or rather [[externality]], can thus be discovered by its capacities to resist the [[subject]]'s destructiveness. This confers upon the [[analysis]] of [[negative]] [[transference]] a preponderant [[role]] in [[treatment]].
==See Also==
# [[Passage to the act]]
# [[Anxiety]]
# [[Danger]]
# [[Dementia]]
# [[Depressive position]]
# [[Experience of satisfaction]]
# [[Group phenomenon]]
# [[Idea/representation]]
# [[Illusion]]
# [[Internal/external reality]]
# [[Mythology and psychoanalysis]]
# [[Outline of Psycho-Analysis]]
# [[Psychoanalytic nosography]]
# [[Splitting of the ego]]
# [[Truth]]
# [[Wish]]
# [[hallucinatory satisfaction of a wish]]
# [[Wish/yearning]]
==References==
<references/>
* [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1911b). Formulations on the two principles of [[mental]] functioning. SE, 12: 213-226.
* ——. (1916-1917f [1915]). A metapsychological [[supplement]] to the [[theory]] of [[dreams]]. SE, 14: 217-235.
* Abend, Sander. (1982). Reality testing as a [[clinical]] [[concept]]. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 51, 218-238.
* Arlow, [[Jacob]]. (1969). Fantasy, [[memory]], and reality testing. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 38, 28-51.
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
