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In 1937, in his paper Analysis Terminable and Interminable, Freud speaks of the analytic relationship in the following words: “We must not forget that the analytic relationship is based on a love of truth -that is, on a recognition of reality- and that it precludes any kind of sham or deceit”.
The origins of Freud's position are to be found 25 years earlier in his 1911 paper on the Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning, where he speaks of the primary importance of the reality principle in the functioning of the psyche. In this paper, Freud proposes that it is: “… the non-occurrence of the expected satisfaction, the disappointment experienced, that led to the abandonment of this attempt at satisfaction by means of hallucination. … A new principle of mental functioning was thus introduced; what was presented in the mind was no longer what was agreeable but what was real, even if it happened to be disagreeable. This setting-up of the reality principle proved to be a momentous step”(p. 219), and he continues: “With the introduction of the reality principle one species of thought-activity was split off; … This activity is phantasying, which… abandons dependence on real objects” (p. 222).
Finally, in 1940, in the article Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defense, Freud points out the price of the disturbance of the love of truth in the function of the Ego. In this paper, he develops his thoughts on the truth/reality issue, speaking of the “ingenious solution” adopted by a child's ego under the sway of a powerful instinctual demand: this solution consists in the fact that reality