Acting Out
Are you angry, aggressive, impulsive?
Acting out is when you proceed from an idea to a corresponding action with a sense of immediacy. It can take the form of an aggressive act directed either at yourself or at others. These acts can range from acting in an aggressive manner towards others, through to violent and aggressive acts such as sexual assault, suicide and murder. Acting out can also include you being involved in certain accidents which you feel you have no part in bringing about.
Acting out occurs when you are subject to an unconscious idea from the past. You relive the idea in the present. Rather than remember the idea, and talk about it, you act it out. Such acts are recognisable by their characteristics: they have an impulsive aspect; they are a radical departure from your ordinary behaviour; they are repetitive; you refuse to recognise they are caused by unconscious ideas; you recognise they are ill-motivated; and you rationalise them after they have taken place.
Acting out occurs both inside and outside the consulting room. When it happens inside, your analyst can interpret and you can work through the idea by talking about it. ‘He acts it before us, as it were, instead of reporting it to us’ Freud. When it happens outside, you are free of your analyst’s interpretation, so you are more likely to act out and less likely to recognise it. Don’t act out, talk to an analyst. Understand your actions, rather than ‘rationalise’ them with ‘he (or she) made me do it’.
References
Freud. S., (1940) [1938], An Outline of Psychoanalysis, in Richards, A., (Ed.), (1993), Penguin Freud Library Volume 15, Penguin, London.
Laplanche, J., & Pontalis, J.B., (1973), The Language of Psycho-Analysis, W. W. Norton and Company, New York.