Acting-out is a defense mechanism in which the person acts without reflection or apparent regard for its negative consequences (DSM III, 1987 p.394). George E. Vaillant (1992) explains that it “involves the expression of feelings, wishes, or impulses in uncontrolled behaviour with apparent disregard for personal or social consequences” (p.253). Therefore it is the mode of following the emotion in its total stimulation without making any screening process of reflection regarding the consequences. Here, the individual moved with anger transfers the aggression into action in an uncontrolled way. The violence in all manners such as personal, familial and social- are examples of actingout. Physical fights, verbal abuses, compulsive drug use, suicide and homicide all are some examples of acting –out.
G.E. Vaillant presents it as an immature defense mode, because it is rather common among the children. In some persons it will be isolated or occasional event, but in some others it would become more habitual or frequent act. Perry and Henry (2004) places the defense mode of acting out in the bottom level while he made a hierarchy of adaptation of defenses in psychotherapy according to the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS) (p.167).
However, some argues that acting-out helps one to get relaxed of one’s anger. “According to catharsis theory, acting aggressively or even viewing aggression is an effective way to purge angry and aggressive feelings” (Bushman, 2002, p.724). This theory makes “authoritative statement that venting one’s anger will produce a positive improvement in one’s psychological state. The word catharsis comes from the Greek word katharsis, which literally translated means a cleansing or purging” (Bushman, 2002, p.724). Thus catharsis-theory promotes the possibility of purging one’s emotional residues of anger by letting it to flow without any screening. Brad J. Bushman (2002) conducted an empirical study among 600 undergraduate students to understand the validity of the above mentioned theory. After the analysis of the experiment he challenged this theory. According to him for reducing anger and aggression, it is the worst possible advice to tell one to imagine their provocateur’s face on a pillow or punching bag as they wallop it, yet this is precisely what many popular psychologists advise people to do. If followed, such advice will only make people angrier and more aggressive (p.730).
Different from a set-up of experiments in day-to-day activities one would experience a kind of ‘pay-off experience’. One might experience emotions like shame or guilt after such acting-out episodes. After letting-go the flow of emotions, one would later evaluate the episode as rather childish. Therefore George E. Vaillant (1992) has rightly mentioned that acting out ones anger involves self-destructive behaviour (p.253). An apparent disregard for personal or social consequences in an acting-out naturally brings damages in the emotional equilibrium and in developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships.