Rooken’s GoldenShadows Collection

en.wikipedia.org

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against unpleasant impulses by denying their existence in themselves, while attributing them to others.^[1] For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude.

According to some research, the projection of one's negative qualities onto others is a common process in everyday life.^[2]

Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciouslydenies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.^[1]

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object.

The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud—in his letters to Wilhelm Fliess, '"Draft H" deals with projection as a mechanism of defence'^[2]—and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud, why it is sometimes referred to as Freudian projection.^[3]

Overview

According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings onto someone else. 'Emotions or excitations which the ego tries to ward off are "split out" and then felt as being outside the ego... perceived in another person'.^[4] It is a common process.^[5]The related defense of 'projective identification' differs from projection in that the impulse projected onto an external object does not appear as something alien and distant from the ego because the connection of the self with that projected impulse continues'.^[6]

In one example of the process, a person might have thoughts of infidelity with respect to a spouse or other partner. Instead of dealing with these undesirable thoughts consciously, the subject unconsciously projects these feelings onto the other person, and begins to think that the other has thoughts of infidelity and that the other may be having an affair. In this way, the subject may obtain 'acquittal by his conscience - if he projects his own impulses to faithlessness on to the partner to whom he owes faith'.^[7] In this sense, projection is related to denial, arguably the only more primitive defense mechanismthan projection, which, like all defense mechanisms, provides a function whereby a person can protect the conscious mind from a feeling that is otherwise repulsive.

Projection can also be established as a means of obtaining or justifying certain actions that would normally be found atrocious or heinous. This often means projecting false accusations, information, etc., onto an individual for the sole purpose of maintaining a self-created illusion. One of the many problems with the process whereby 'something dangerous that is felt inside can be moved outside - a process of "projection"' - is that as a result 'the projector may become somewhat depleted and rendered limp in character, as he loses part of his personality'.^[8]

Compartmentalization, splitting, and projection are argued to be ways that the ego maintains the illusion that it is completely in control at all times. Further, while engaged in projection, individuals can be unable to access truthful memories, intentions, and experiences, even about their own nature, as is common in deep trauma.^[9]

Historical uses

Peter Gay describes projection as "the operation of expelling feelings or wishes the individual finds wholly unacceptable—too shameful, too obscene, too dangerous—by attributing them to another."^[10]

The philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach based his theory of religion in large part upon the idea of projection, i.e., the idea that an anthropomorphic deity is the outward projection of man's anxieties and desires.^[11]

The "Shadow"—a term used in Jungian psychology to describe one kind of psychological projection—refers to the projected material from the individual's personal unconscious.^[12] Jungians consider that 'Political agitation in all countries is full of such projections, just as much as the backyard gossip of little groups and individuals'.^[13] Marie-Louise Von Franzextended the view of projection to cover phenomena in Patterns of Creativity Mirrored in Creation Myths, stating that: "... wherever known reality stops, where we touch the unknown, there we project an archetypal image".^[14]

Psychological projection is one of the medical explanations of bewitchment that attempts to diagnose the behavior of the afflicted children at Salem in 1692. The historian John Demos asserts that the symptoms of bewitchment experienced by the afflicted girls in Salem during the witchcraft crisis were because the girls were undergoing psychological projection.^[15]Demos argues the girls had convulsive fits caused by repressed aggression and were able to project this aggression without blame because of the speculation of witchcraft and bewitchment.

Counter-projection

When addressing psychological trauma, the defense mechanism is sometimes counter-projection, including an obsession to continue and remain in a recurring trauma-causing situation and the compulsive obsession with the perceived perpetrator of the trauma or its projection.

Jung writes that "All projections provoke counter-projection when the object is unconscious of the quality projected upon it by the subject."^[16]

Psychopathology

In psychopathology, projection is an especially commonly used defense mechanism in people with certain personality disorders: 'Patients with paranoid personalities, for example, use projection as a primary defense because it allows them to disavow unpleasant feelings and attribute them to others'.^[17]

According to Kernberg, all 'the primitive defenses, such as splitting, projection and projective identification, are commonly connected with primitively organized personalities, such as:^[18]

Projective techniques

Drawing on the theory that 'the individual "projects" something of himself or herself into everything he or she does, in line with Gordon Allport's concept of expressive behaviour',^[19] projective techniques have been devised to aid personality assessment. 'The two best-known projective techniques are the Rorschach ink-blots and the Thematic Apperception Test(TAT)'.^[20]

See also

References

1. ^ 

Wade, Tavris "Psychology" Sixth Edition Prentice Hall 2000 ISBN 0-321-04931-4

1. ^ 

Jean-Michel Quinodoz, Reading Freud (London 2005) p. 24

1. ^ 

Shepard, Simon. "Basic Psychological Mechanisms: Neurosis and Projection". The Heretical Press. Retrieved on March 07, 2008.

1. ^ 

Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 146

1. ^ 

"Defenses". www.psychpage.com

. http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/defenses.html

. Retrieved 2008-03-11.

1. ^ 

Otto F. Kernberg, Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism (London 1990) p. 56

1. ^ 

Sigmund Freud, On Psychopathology (Middlesex 1987) p. 198

1. ^ 

R. Appignanesi ed., Introducing Melanie Klein (Cambridge 2006) p. 115 and p. 126

1. ^ Trauma and Projection

2. ^ 

Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time, page 281n

1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica

2. ^ Jungian Projection

3. ^ 

Carl G. Jung ed., Man and his Symbols (London 1978) p. 181

1. ^ 

Karl Wolfe Psychological Projection

1. ^ 

John Demos, "Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of Seventeenth-Century New England," American Historical Review 75, no. 5 (June, 1970):1322.

1. ^ 

General Aspects of Dream Psychology, CW 8, par. 519

1. ^ 

Glen O. Gabbard, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (London 2010) p. 33

1. ^ Gabbard, Psychotherapy p.33

2. ^ 

B. Semeonoff, "Projective Techniques", in Richard Gregory ed, The Oxford Companion to the Mind (Oxford 1987) p. 646

1. ^ Semeonoff, Mind p. 646

External links

• Projection (outofthefog.net)

[show] Defence mechanisms Level 1 – Pathological Level 2 – Immature Level 3 – Neurotic Level 4 – Mature Others See also Narcissistic defences

 

[show] Abuse Types Related topics

 

[show] Bullying Types Elements Organisations Activists Actions Notable suicides (bullycide) Murder–suicides (incidents) Related topics

 

[show] Narcissism Types Characteristics Defences Cultural types Related articles

 

"The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself" and represents "a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well".^[17] If and when 'an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in others — such things as egotism, mental laziness, and sloppiness; unreal fantasies, schemes, and plots; carelessness and cowardice; inordinate love of money and possessions — ...[a] painful and lengthy work of self-education".^[18]

Nevertheless Jungians warn that 'acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life';^[32] and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, 'the later stages of shadow integration' will continue to take place - the grim 'process of washing one's dirty linen in private',^[33] accepting one's shadow.

 

en.wikipedia.org

In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" may refer to (1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative, or (2) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. There are, however, positive aspects which may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem).^[1] Contrary to a Freudian definition of shadow, therefore, the Jungian shadow can include everything outside the light of consciousness, and may be positive or negative. "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."^[2] It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts,^[3] which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognised as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections remain hidden, "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object--if it has one--or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power." ^[4] These projections insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.

From one perspective, 'the shadow...is roughly equivalent to the whole of the Freudian unconscious';^[5] and Jung himself asserted that 'the result of the Freudian method of elucidation is a minute elaboration of man's shadow-side unexampled in any previous age'.^[6]

Shadow (psychology)

In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" may refer to (1) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious, or (2) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not recognize in itself. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative. There are, however, positive aspects which may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem).^[1] Contrary to a Freudian conceptualization of shadow, therefore, the Jungian shadow often refers to all that lies outside the light of consciousness, and may be positive or negative. "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."^[2] It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts,^[3] which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to projection: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections are unrecognized "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object--if it has one--or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power." ^[4] These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world.

From one perspective, 'the shadow...is roughly equivalent to the whole of the Freudian unconscious';^[5] and Jung himself considered that 'the result of the Freudian method of elucidation is a minute elaboration of man's shadow-side unexampled in any previous age'.^[6]

Jung also believed that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity.";^[7] so that for some, it may be, 'the dark side of his being, his sinister shadow...represents the true spirit of life as against the arid scholar'.^[8]

Appearance

The shadow may appear in dreams and visions in various forms, and typically 'appears as a person of the same sex as that of the dreamer'.^[9] It is possible that it might appear with dark features to a person of any race, since it represents a distant, primitive and indiscriminate aspect of the mind. The shadow's appearance and role depend greatly on the living experience of the individual, because much of the shadow develops in the individual's mind rather than simply being inherited in thecollective unconscious. Nevertheless some Jungians maintain that 'The shadow contains, besides the personal shadow, the shadow of society ... fed by the neglected and repressed collective values'.^[10]

Interactions with the shadow in dreams may shed light on one's state of mind. A conversation with the shadow may indicate that one is concerned with conflicting desires or intentions. Identification with a despised figure may mean that one has an unacknowledged difference from the character; a difference which could point to a rejection of the illuminating qualities of ego-consciousness. These examples refer to just two of many possible roles that the shadow may adopt, and are not general guides to interpretation. Also, it can be difficult to identify characters in dreams — "all the contents are blurred and merge into one another ... 'contamination' of unconscious contents"^[11] — so that a character who seems at first to be a shadow might represent some other complex instead.

Jung also made the suggestion of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layers contain the meaningful flow and manifestations of direct personal experiences. These are made unconscious in the individual by such things as the change of attention from one thing to another, simple forgetfulness, or a repression. Underneath these idiosyncratic layers, however, are the archetypes which form the psychic contents of all human experiences. Jung described this deeper layer as "a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious—untouched, and perhaps untouchable—by personal experience" (Campbell, 1971). This bottom layer of the shadow is also what Jung referred to as the collective unconscious.

Encounter with the shadow

The encounter with the shadow plays a central part in the process of individuation. Jung considered that 'the course of individuation...exhibits a certain formal regularity. Its signposts and milestones are various archetypal symbols' marking its stages; and of these 'the first stage leads to the experience of the SHADOW'.^[12] If 'the breakdown of the personaconstitutes the typical Jungian moment both in therapy and in development',^[13] it is this which opens the road to the shadow within, coming about when 'Beneath the surface a person is suffering from a deadly boredom that makes everything seem meaningless and empty ... as if the initial encounter with the Self casts a dark shadow ahead of time'.^[14]Jung considered as a perennial danger in life that 'the more consciousness gains in clarity, the more monarchic becomes its content...the king constantly needs the renewal that begins with a descent into his own darkness'^[15] — his shadow - which the 'dissolution of the persona'^[16] sets in motion.

"The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself" and represents "a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well".^[17] If and when 'an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in others — such things as egotism, mental laziness, and sloppiness; unrealfantasies, schemes, and plots; carelessness and cowardice; inordinate love of money and possessions — ...[a] painful and lengthy work of self-education".^[18]

The dissolution of the persona and the launch of the individuation process also brings with it 'the danger of falling victim to the shadow ... the black shadow which everybody carries with him, the inferior and therefore hidden aspect of the personality'^[19] — of a merger with the shadow.

Merger with the shadow

According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. 'A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps ... living below his own level'^[20]: hence, in terms of the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 'it must be Jekyll, the conscious personality, who integrates the shadow ... and not vice versa. Otherwise the conscious becomes the slave of the autonomous shadow'.^[21]

Individuation inevitably raises that very possibility. As the process continues, and 'the libido leaves the bright upper world ... sinks back into its own depths...below, in the shadows of the unconscious',^[22] so too what comes to the forefront is 'what was hidden under the mask of conventional adaptation: the shadow', with the result that 'ego and shadow are no longer divided but are brought together in an — admittedly precarious — unity'.^[23]

The impact of such 'confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective...tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia'.^[24] Consequently (as Jung knew from personal experience) 'in this time of descent — one, three, seven years, more or less — genuine courage and strength are required',^[25] with no certainty of emergence. Nevertheless Jung remained of the opinion that while 'no one should deny the danger of the descent ... every descent is followed by an ascent ...enantiodromia';^[26] and assimilation of — rather than possession by — the shadow becomes at last a real possibility.

Assimilation of the shadow

Enantiodromia launches 'a different perspective. We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up'.^[27] Here the struggle is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not identification with it. 'Non-identification demands considerable moral effort...prevents a descent into that darkness'; but though 'the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious... understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious'^[28] - reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. 'Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak',^[29] and provides thereby a launching-pad for further individuation. 'The integration of the shadow, or the realisation of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the analytic process...without it a recognition ofanima and animus is impossible'.^[30] Conversely 'to the degree to which the shadow is recognised and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated',^[31] and becomes the centre of the individuation quest.

Neveretheless Jungians warn that 'acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life';^[32] and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, 'the later stages of shadow integration' will continue to take place - the grim 'process of washing one's dirty linen in private',^[33] accepting one's shadow.

See also

Psychology portal

• Chöd

References

1. ^ 

Young-Eisendrath, P. and Dawson, T. (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Jung., Cambridge University Press, p. 319

1. ^ 

Jung, C.G. (1938). "Psychology and Religion." In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131

1. ^ 

Jung, C.G. (1952). "Answer to Job." In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.12

1. ^ 

Jung, C.G. (1951). "Phenomenology of the Self" In The Portable Jung. P.147

1. ^ 

Anthony Stevens, On Jung (London 1990) p. 43

1. ^ 

C. G. Jung, The Practice of Psychotherapy (London 1993) p. 63

1. ^ 

Kaufman, C. Three-Dimensional Villains: Finding Your Character's Shadow [1]

1. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (London 1983) p. 262

1. ^ 

M-L von Franz, "The Process of Individuation" in C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols (London 1978) p. 175

1. ^ 

Michael Fordham, Jungian Psychotherapy (Avon 1978) p. 5

1. ^ von Franz, "Process" p. 183

2. ^ 

J. Jacobi, The Psychology of C. G. Jung (London 1946) p. 102

1. ^ 

Peter Homans, Jung in Context (London 1979) p. 102

1. ^ von Franz, "Process" p. 170

2. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis (London 1963) p. 334

1. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (London 1953) p. 277

1. ^ 

C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (London 1996) p. 284 and p. 21

1. ^ von Franz, "Process" p. 174

2. ^ 

C. G. Jung, "Psychology of the Transference Collected Works 16 (London 1954) p. 219

1. ^ Jung, Archetypes p. 123

2. ^ Stevens, Jung p. 50

3. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious (London 1944) p. 181-2

1. ^ Jung "Psychology" p. 238-9

2. ^ Jung, Mysterium p. 497

3. ^ 

Robert Bly/Marion Woodman, The Maiden King (Dorset 1999) p. 179

1. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation (London 1956) p. 357 and p. 375

1. ^ Bly/Woodman, Maiden p. 160-1

2. ^ 

Jung, "Psychology" pp. 260, 266 and 269

1. ^ Jung, Practice p. 239

2. ^ 

C. G. Jung, Aion (London 1959) p. 22

1. ^ Jung, Archetypes p. 270n

2. ^ 

David L. Hart, "The classical Jungian school" in Polly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Dawson, The Cambridge Companion to Jung (Cambridge 1977) p. 92

1. ^ Stevens, On Jung p. 235

Further reading

• Abrams, Jeremiah, and Connie Zweig. Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. Tarcher, 1991, ISBN 0-87477-618-X

• Abrams, Jeremiah. The Shadow in America. Nataraj. 1995

• Bly, Robert. "A little book on the human shadow". Edited by William Booth. Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988,ISBN 0-06-254847-6

• Campbell, Joseph, ed. The Portable Jung, Translated by R.F.C. Hull, New York: Penguin Books, 1971.

• Johnson, Robert A., Owning Your Own Shadow : Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, 128 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1993, ISBN 0-06-250754-0

• Johnson, Robert A., Inner Work : Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for Personal Growth and Integration, 241 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1989, ISBN 0-06-250431-2

• Neumann, Erich. Depth Psychology and a New Ethic Shambhala; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-87773-571-9.

• Vandebrake, Mark. "Children of the Mist: Dwarfs in German Mythology, Fairy Tales, and Folk Legends" 135 pages. A work that interprets dwarf depictions throughout German history as shadow symbols.

• Chopra, Deepak, Marianne Williamson, Debbie Ford. The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self. HarperOne, 2010. ISBN 0-06-196265-1.

External links

Categories

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answers.comhttp://www.answers.com/topic/acting-out-acting-in

Gale Dictionary of Psychoanalysis: 

The term "acting out" corresponds to Freud's use of the German word "agieren" (as a verb and as a noun). It should be distinguished from the closely related concept of "passageà l'acte," inherited from the French psychiatric tradition and denoting the impulsive and usually violent acts often addressed in criminology.

"Acting out" refers to the discharge by means of action, rather than by means of verbalization, of conflicted mental content. Though there is this contrast between act and word, both sorts of discharge are responses to a return of the repressed: repeated in the case of actions, remembered in the case of words. Another distinction occasionally drawn is between acting out and acting in, used to distinguish between actions that occur outside psychoanalytic treatment (often to be explained as compensation for frustration brought on by the analytic situation, by the rule of abstinence, for example) and actions that occur within treatment (in the form of non-verbal communication or body language, but also of prolonged silences, repeated pauses, or attempts to seduce or attack the analyst).

Freud first mentioned acting out in connection with the case of "Dora" (1905e [1901]), noting with respect to her transference that his patient took revenge on him just as she wanted to take revenge on Herr K.: Dora "deserted me as she believed herself to have been deceived and deserted by him. Thus she acted out an essential part of her recollections and phantasies instead of reproducing them in the treatment" (p. 119).

The notion of acting out is closely bound up with the theory of the transference and its development. Though Freud treated the transference as the cause of acting out —and as an obstacle to treatment —in the Dora case, he subsequently described transference as a great boon to analysis, provided it could be successfully recognized and its significance conveyed to the patient. Acting out is thus attributable to a failure of the interpretive work or to the patient's failure toassimilate it. In his paper "Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through" (1914g), Freud revisited the distinction between remembering and acting out: "The patient does not remember anything of what he has forgotten and repressed, but acts it out. He reproduces it not as a memory, but as an action; he repeats it, without, of course, knowing that he is repeating it" (p. 150). The examples that Freud gave here involved the repetition of feelings (feeling rebellious and defiant, or "helpless and hopeless") that had formerly been directed at a person or situation in childhood but that now manifested themselves, either directly or indirectly (through dreams, silences, and so on), visà-vis the analyst. Freud's assessment of such instances of acting out was nuanced, for he realized that they were at once a form of resistance against the emergence of a memory and a particular "way of remembering" (p. 150).

Inasmuch as acting out occurs outside as well as inside the analytic situation, Freud went on, "We must be prepared to find, therefore, that the patient yields to the compulsion to repeat, which now replaces the impulsion to remember, not only in his personal attitude to his doctor but also in every other activity and relationship which may occupy his life at the time——if, for instance, he falls in love or undertakes a task or starts an enterprise during the treatment" (p. 151). Acting out and repeating are ultimately the same process, involving "everything that has already made its way from the sources of the repressed into [the patient's] manifest personality——his inhibitions and unserviceable attitudes and his pathologicalcharacter-traits" (p. 151).

All the same, acting out in reality could have grave consequences, precipitating disasters in the patient's life and dashing any hope of cure through psychoanalysis. It is thus up to the analyst, relying on the patient's transference-based attachment, to control the patient's impulses and repetitive acts, notably by extracting a promise to refrain, while under treatment, from making any serious decisions regarding professional or love life. The analyst, however, must be "prepared for a perpetual struggle with his patient to keep in the psychical sphere all the impulses which the patient would like to direct into the motor sphere; and he celebrates it as a triumph for the treatment if he can bring it about that something that the patient wishes to discharge in action is disposed of through the work of remembering" (p. 153).

In Freud's thinking, then, acting out was long associated with the transference. 'In An Outline of PsychoAnalysis (1940a [1938]) Freud emphasized the need to clearly demarcate between "actualization" in the transference from acting out, whether inside or outside the analytic session: "We think it most undesirable if the patient acts outside the transference instead of remembering. The ideal conduct for our purposes would be that he should behave as normally as possible outside the treatment and express his abnormal reactions only in the transference" (p. 177).

Many other authors have deployed the notion of acting out, typically when considering personalities more inclined to act out than to remember in the context of the transference. Thus Anna Freud (1968) saw pre-oedipal pathologies in this light, and León Grinberg hypothesized that acting out is a reaction to inadequate mourning for the loss of an early object. Such approaches take acting out to be inappropriate or even disruptive acts precipitated by the pressure of unconscious wishes.

Bibliography

Freud, Anna. (1968). "Acting out." International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 49 (2-3), 165-170.

Freud, Sigmund. (1905e [1901]). "Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria." SE, 7: 1-122.

——. (1914g). "Remembering, repeating, and working-through (further recommendations on the technique of psycho-analysis II)." SE, 12: 145-156.

——. (1940a [1938]). An outline of psycho-analysis. SE, 23: 139-207.

Grinberg, León. (1968). "On acting out and its role in the psychoanalytic process." International Journal of PsychoAnalysis,49, 171-178.

Further Reading

Chasseguet-Smirgel, Janine. (1990). On acting out. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 71, 77-86.

Eagle, Morris. (1993). Enactments, transference, and symptomatic cure: a case history. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 3, 93-110.

De Blecourt, Abraham. (1993). Transference, countertransference, and acting out in analysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 74, 757-774

Gill, Merton M., disc. (1993). On "Enactments": Interaction and interpretation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 3, 111-122.

Goldberg, Arnold. (2002). Enactment as understanding and misunderstanding. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50, 869-884.

Paniagua, Cecilio. (1998). Acting in revisited. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 79, 499-512.

Roughton, Ralph E. (1993). Useful aspects acting out: repetition, enactment, actualization. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 41, 443-472.

—SOPHIEDE MIJOLLA-MELLOR

 

psychwiki.comhttp://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Zeigarnik_Effect

From PsychWiki - A Collaborative Psychology Wiki

Evidence in accord with the Zeigarnik Effect:

The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008, pg. 122). The automatic system signals the conscious mind, which may be focused on new goals, that a previous activity was left incomplete. It seems to be human nature to finish what we start and, if it is not finished, we experience dissonance.

A study done by Greist-Bousquet and Schiffman (1992) provided evidence for the Zeigarnik Effect. In this paper, the authors stated that there is a tendency or “need” to complete a task once it has been initiated and the lack of closure that stems from an unfinished task promotes some continued task related cognitive effort. The cognitive effort that comes with these intrusive thoughts of the unfinished task is terminated only once the person returns to complete the task.

In their study, two groups were observed. The first group was administered a list of 10 three letter anagrams they were asked to solve. The second group was given a list of 20 three letter anagrams they were asked to solve. The first group was asked to estimate the amount of time it took them to finish solving the list after they completed it. Their estimated time was then divided by the actual time it took them to finish. The average ratio for this group was 1.109 which means they were very close to correct (Greist-Bousquet & Schiffman, 1992).

The second group was abruptly interrupted after the first 10 three letter anagrams. They were asked to estimate how much time it took them to finish the first set of 10 (they were fully aware they still had 10 more anagrams to complete). They then proceeded to finish the last 10 anagrams. They were asked again to estimate the time it took to finish the second set of 10 anagrams. For the first set of 10 anagrams, the average ratio was 1.646, which meant they overestimated how much time it took them to finish. The average ratio was 1.346 for the second set of 10 anagrams (Greist-Bousquet & Schiffman, 1992), which was fairly accurate.

The second group overestimated the time it took them to complete the task because they were disrupted. This caused them to feel frustrated and experience a form of failure. This distress and thoughts of returning to the objective may have caused them to think they were slower at finishing the first 10 anagrams.

In another study, Johnson, Mehrabian, and Weiner (1968), classified participants into three groups. Participants took the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which was used to measure the need for achievement, and the Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ), which assesses the level of anxiety. Out of the male sample of 82 people, the top 25% scorers were labeled as having high achievement motivation, while the bottom 25% were labeled as having low achievement motivation. The middle 50% were just considered as in the middle. The group with high motivation had characteristics like engaging in achievement related activities, anticipate success, and prefer tasks of intermediate difficulty. All groups were given a test of 58 questions after being classified. Each group performed about the same as the other. However, the group with high achievement motivation proved to have a better memory for incomplete questions than the group with low motivation (Johnson et al, 1968). They were asked about their memory immediately after the test. This finding suggests that thoughts of incomplete tasks linger more than complete tasks. Having a better memory of the incomplete tasks means that thoughts of the incomplete task must have stayed present in the conscious mind. However, motivation seems to be a factor. If people are not motivated enough to finish a task, then the Zeigarnik Effect is not so strong.

In conclusion, memory is a good indicator as to whether people continue to be interrupted by thoughts of incomplete tasks. Constant thoughts of incomplete task components cause it to be retained in memory better. Interruptions that cause a person to fall behind in their objective also cause anxiety that brings about constant thoughts of unfinished business.

References

Baumeister, R.F., & Bushman, B.J., (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature. United States: Thompson Wadsworth.

Greist-Bousquet, S., Schiffman, N. (1992). The effect of Task interruption and closure on perceived duration. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 30(1), 9-11.

Johnson, P.B., Mehrabian, A., Weiner, B. (1968). Achievement Motivation and the Recall of Incompleted and Completed Exam Questions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 59(3), 181-185.