Acting out

A session brushes an old wound; watch where the phone gets thrown. 1. The session touches a childhood memory of being abandoned -> the trigger: a specific event stirring an unconscious conflict not yet tolerable consciously. 2. That same week he throws his phone against HIS OWN wall at home -> acting out: discharge as behaviour outside the therapeutic relationship, in the patient's outside life. 3. Now picture him throwing it at the THERAPIST'S wall, right there in the room -> acting in: the same discharge, but directed at the therapist within the session — a related but distinct event. 4. He feels a rush of calm right after -> brief relief of tension, without resolving the underlying conflict. 5. On the next anniversary of the same loss, he throws something again -> recurrence: because the conflict was never resolved, the same trigger reproduces the same pattern.