"Acting in" is a psychological term which has been given various meanings over the years, but which is most generally used in opposition to

acting out In the psychology of defense mechanisms and self-control, acting out is the performance of an action considered bad or anti-social. In general usage, the action performed is destructive to self or to others. The term is used in this way in sexual ...

to cover conflicts which are brought to life inside therapy, as opposed to outside. One commentator, noting the variety of usages, points out that it is often "unclear whether 'in' refers to the internalization ''into'' the personality, to the growth in ''in''sight, or to the acting with''in'' the session".

Patients

With respect to patients, the term 'acting in' has been used to refer to the process of a client/patient bringing an issue from outside the therapy into the analytic situation, and acting upon it there. The therapist is advised to respond to the issue immediately to prevent further and more disruptive acting in.

Hanna Segal Hanna Segal (born Hanna Poznańska; 20 August 1918 – 5 July 2011) was a British psychoanalyst of Polish descent and a follower of Melanie Klein. She was president of the British Psychoanalytical Society, vice-president of the International Psyc ...

distinguished positive acting in from destructive acting in - both being aimed however at affecting the analyst's state of mind, whether to communicate or to confuse.

Posture

The term was used in 1957 by Meyer A. Zeligs to refer specifically to the postures taken by analysts in a psychoanalytic session.

Therapists

Psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

also describes as 'acting in' the process whereby the analyst brings his or her personal

countertransference Countertransference is defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client – or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. Early formulations The phenomenon of countertransference (german: G ...

into the analytic situation - as opposed to the converse, the acting out of the patient's

transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...

. The result is generally agreed to produce a chaotic analytic situation which hampers therapeutic progress. The term was used rather differently however by

Carl Whitaker Carl Alanson Whitaker (1912–1995) was an American physician and psychotherapy pioneer family therapist. "Carl Whitaker was one of the founding generation of family therapists who broke the rules of the psychotherapeutic orthodoxies of the ti ...

in the 60's, so as to refer to the technique whereby therapists increase their involvement in a session in such a way as to ramp up the patient's

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

for therapeutic ends.G. Connell et al, ''Reshaping Family Relationships: The Symbolic Therapy of Carl Whitaker'' () p. 101

References

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External links

Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor, 'Acting out/Acting in'

Psychotherapy

Patients

Posture

Therapists

See also

References

Further reading

External links