[2] The analytic task was then to help "the patient who does not remember anything of what he has forgotten and repressed, but acts it out"[3] to replace present activity by past memory.
Otto Fenichel added that acting out in an analytic setting potentially offered valuable insights to the therapist; but was nonetheless a psychological resistance in as much as it deals only with the present at the expense of concealing the underlying influence of the past.
[7] The interpretation of a person's acting out and an observer's response varies considerably, with context and subject usually setting audience expectations.
As young children will not have developed the means to communicate their feelings of distress, tantrums prove an effective and achievable method of alerting parents to their needs and requesting attention.
[11] Criminologists debate whether juvenile delinquency is a form of acting out, or rather reflects wider conflicts involved in the process of socialization.