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We have already touched on the problem of action (though so far I have discussed only rational action) in terms of its motivation. Now we shall take a closer look at it, though I can select from the total problem only fragments of a few themes which seem important for our conception of ego structure and of the “healthy” ego. An investigation such as this one, which uses man's relation to his environment as its point of departure, should perhaps focus on action. In the study of intrapsychic conflict, action can be temporarily bracketed, so to speak, but as soon as we turn to the study of adaptation processes, it immediately takes the center of the stage. Freud has shown that one of the manifestations of the transition from the pleasure principle to the reality principle is the development of action from a mere motor discharge. A genetic psychology of action would be equally important for the theories of ego development, intention, and object relations.
In the course of psychoanalysis we encounter many situations in which it is important for us to know the extent to which our patients' actions are realistic. Actually, very often we cannot adequately determine the coefficient of realism—to coin a phrase. When we apply psychoanalytic thinking to sociological and ethnopsychological problems, this determination