Changes

<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>

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]].

In a [[letter ]] to [[Fliess ]] written on December 22, 1897, Freud already foresees what he defines at that [[time ]] as the ambiguity or imprecise [[meaning ]] characteristic of [[obsessional neurosis]]. He would later describe this as an action that occurs in a second [[moment]], and which seeks to undo an action that precedes it. "Obsessional [[ideas ]] are often clothed in a remarkable [[verbal ]] vagueness in [[order ]] to permit of this multiple employment" (1950a, p. 273).

In the "[[Rat Man]]" (1909d), Freud describes compulsive [[acts ]] as unfolding in two moments, during which the first is undone by the second. According to him in obsessional [[thought ]] "the [[patient]]'s [[consciousness ]] [[naturally ]] misunderstands [[them ]] [the compulsive acts] and puts forward a set of secondary motives to account for them—rationalizes them, in short" (p. 192). In reality there is an opposition between [[love ]] and [[hate]]. In Inhibitions, Symptoms and [[Anxiety ]] (1926d), he defines more specifically the "magical" [[nature ]] of this [[defense ]] that "no longer [has] any resemblance to the process of '[[repression]]"' (p. 164). Thus the obsessive ceremony strives not only to prevent the [[appearance ]] of an event but to undo it, which is [[irrational ]] and magical and most likely arises from an animist attitude toward the [[environment]]. [[Anna Freud ]] (1936) included undoing in her repertory of ego defenses.

The [[concept ]] of undoing has today acquired a certain [[psychological ]] connotation. It is often confused with the concept of ambivalent [[behavior ]] or attitude. It is probably also necessary to distinguish it, because of the "magical" [[character ]] of the defense, from the series of mechanisms discovered by Freud—repression, [[foreclosure]], [[negation ]] (or denegation), [[disavowal ]] (or [[denial]])—a series that is commonly referred to today as the [[work ]] of negativization.

See also: Anxiety; [[Defense mechanisms]]; Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety; Obsessional neurosis; [[Rite ]] and [[ritual]]; Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, The.[[Bibliography]]

* Freud, Anna. (1909d). [[Notes ]] upon a case of obsessional neurosis. SE, 10: 155-249.* ——. (1936). The Ego and the Mechanisms of [[Defence]]. [[London]]: Hogarth Press; New York: International Universities Press, 1966.