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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]].

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.