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The term "[[acting out]]" is used in the ''[[Standard Edition]]'' to translate the [[German]] [[word ]] ''[[Agieren]]'' used by [[Freud]].

In [[Freud]]'s [[{{LB}}|work]], "'''[[repetition|repeating]]'''" and "'''[[memory|remembering]]'''" are "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> If ''past'' events are [[repression|repressed]] from [[memory]], they [[return]] in the ''present'' by expressing themselves in ''actions''; when the [[subject]] does not [[remember]] the ''past'', therefore, he is condemned to [[repetition|repeat]] it by [[acting out|acting it out]].

If ''past'' events are '''<blockquote>"The [[repression|repressedpatient]]does not ''' from 'remember''anything of what he has forgotten and [[memoryrepressed]]''', they 'but ''[[returnacts]]''' in the ''present'' by expressing themselves in '''actions'''it out. He reproduces it not as a memory, but as an action; when the he '''[[subject]]''' does not 'repeats''it, without, of course, [[rememberknowing]]''' the ''past'', therefore, that he is condemned to '''[[repetition|repeatrepeating]]''' it by ."<ref>{{F}} "[[acting out{{FB}}|acting it outRemembering, Repeating, and Working-Through]]. " 1914. [[SE]] 12: 150</ref></blockquote>

From a [[Lacan]]ian perspective, this basic definition of "[[acting out]]" is [[true ]] but incomplete; it ignores the [[dimension ]] of the [[Other]].   Thus while [[Lacan]] maintains that [[acting out]] results from a failure to [[recollect]] the ''past'', he emphasizes the [[intersubjective]] dimension of [[recollection]].  In other [[words]], [[recollection]] does not merely involve recalling something to [[consciousness]], but also [[communication|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.

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.