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Adaptation to reality—which includes the mastery of it—proceeds to a large extent from the ego and in particular from that part of the ego which is free from conflict; and it is directed by the organized structure of ego-functions (such as intelligence, perception, etc.) which exist in their own right and have an independent effect upon the solution of conflicts. Phantasy and play also facilitate adaptation, and so do the affects and certain other supposedly unrealistic actions like flight or denial of truth. In fact, recognition of reality is not the same as adaptation to it.
There are two sorts of adaptation in man. One is founded upon constitutional factors, the other depends upon a superior function of his ego. This second kind enables him, unlike the animals, to change not only himself but his environment, including the possibilities of adaptation which his environment holds out to him. there can be an opposition between adaptation with reference to the individual and adaptation with reference to the species. Adaptation can occur by way of a regression (as in the use of imagery) as well as progressively.
In order to maintain the equilibrium in relation to the external world which is called adaptation, the individual must achieve an internal equilibrium, or harmonization, in his instinctual life (vital equilibrium) and between his psychical institutions (structural equilibrium). The correlation of external and internal equilibrium for the purposes of adaptation in the widest sense of the word is carried out on a superior level in the hierarchy of ego-functions. The tendency is for the mind, as it develops, to replace immediate reactions to the external world by internal processes such as thought, super-ego relationships, etc.
The pleasure principle alone is not enough to account for the capacity for adaptation; nor is the reality principle merely a modification of the pleasure principle. In its wider sense, as something working for the preservation of the