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=Freudian Dictionary=
<blockquote>It is a kind of negative magic which by means of a motor symbolism would "blow away," as it were, not the consequences of an event (an impression, an experience), but the event itself .... The effort at "undoing" finds its reflection in the normal sphere in the resolve to treat an occurrence as ''non arrivé''; but in this case one does not take up arms against it, one is simply not concerned about either the occurrence or its consequences; whereas in neurosis the attempt is made to abrogate the past itself, to repress it by motor means. An effort of the same sort may provide the explanation of the compulsion to repetition so frequently present in neurosis, a ''repetition'' in the carrying out of which various mutually contradictory purposes are commingled .... The striving to "undo" a traumatic experience is often revealed as a motive force of the first rank in the creating of symptoms.<ref>{{PoA}} Ch. 6</ref></blockquote>
{{Freudian Dictionary}}
=Below=
The mechanism of undoing is characteristic of obsessional neurosis, along with isolation. It involves a process of "negative magic" that, according to Freud, tends to undo what has been done. When an action is undone by a second action, it is as if neither had occurred, whereas in reality both have taken place.
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