24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
==Sigmund Freud==
"[[Acting out]]" is the term which is used in the ''[[Standard Edition]]'' to translate the [[German]] term ''[[Agieren]]'' used by [[Freud]].
One of the most important themes running throughout [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]] is the opposition between [[repeating]] and [[remembering]].
These are, so to speak, "contrasting ways of bringing the past into the present."<ref>Laplanche, Jean and Pontalis, Jean-Betrand. ''The Language of Psycho-Analysis''. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 1967. p.4</ref>
==Memory==
If past events are [[repressed]] from [[memory]], they return by expressing themselves in actions; when the [[subject]] does not [[remember]] the past, therefore, he is condemned to [[repeat]] it by [[acting out|acting it out]].
==Motivation==
Although an element of [[repetition]] can be found in almost every [[human]] [[action]], the term "[[acting out]]" is usually reserved for those [[action]]s which display "an impulsive aspect relatively out of harmony with the subject's usual motivational patterns" and which are therefore "fairly easy to isolate from the overall trends of his activity."<ref>Laplanche, Jean and Pontalis, Jean-Betrand. ''The Language of Psycho-Analysis''. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. 1967. p.4</ref>
==Jacques Lacan==
[[Lacan]], following a tradition in psychoanalytic writing, uses this term in [[English]].
From a [[Lacan]]ian perspective, this basic definition of "[[acting out]]" is true but incomplete; it ignores the dimension of the [[Other]].
In other words, [[recollection]] does not merely involve recalling something to [[consciousness]], but also [[communicating]] this to an [[Other]] by means of [[speech]].
Hence [[acting out]] results when [[recollection]] is made impossible by the refusal of the [[Other]] to listen.
==Communication==When the [[Other]] has become "deaf," the [[subject]] cannot convey a [[message ]] to him in words, and is forced to expressed the [[message ]] in [[action]]s.
The [[acting out]] is thus a ciphered [[message ]] which the [[subject]] addresses to an [[Other]], although the [[subject]] himself is neither [[conscious]] of the content of this [[message ]] nor even aware that his [[action]]s express a [[message]].
It is the [[Other]] who is entrusted with deciphering the [[message]]; yet it is impossible for him to do so.
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Act]]
* [[Analysand]]
* [[Communication]]
||
* [[Consciousness]]
* [[Intersubjectivity]]
* [[Memory]]
||
* [[Other]]
* [[Recollection]]
* [[Repetition]]
||
* [[Repression]]
* [[Subject]]
* [[Treatment]]
{{Also}}
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Practice]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
{{OK}}
__NOTOC__
