ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud distinguishes between acting out within the analytic situation and acting out outside the analysis. Both forms are regarded as a consequence of the analytic work and the treatment situation. Freud's views on acting out remained essentially unaltered in his subsequent discussions of the subject, and it is clear that he consistently regarded acting out as a clinical psychoanalytic concept related quite specifically to psychoanalytic treatment. Acting out has been discussed by O. Fenichel with reference both to treatment-related phenomena and to impulsive tendencies lodged in the personality and pathology of the individual. The application of the concept of acting out to behaviour in contexts other than that of psychoanalytic treatment poses certain difficulties. Acting out is, of course, not only confined to the patient group. Irrational actions towards patients resulting from the doctor's countertransference could probably also be designated as acting out on the part of the doctor.
