International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis | Act/Action

The terms "act" and "action" are related, both referring to a form of behavior (motor, verbal, etc.) intended to modify the environment, either to avoid a danger or unpleasure, or to satisfy a need or desire. The term "act," however, refers primarily to this event in its uniqueness and effectiveness, whereas "action" designates both a process, which can be more or less complex and durable, and the result of that process. These definitions are not psychoanalytic in themselves, and there is no coherent body of thought in psychoanalysis concerning them, in spite of the rather fragmentary references found in Freud and subsequent attempts to give these concepts a theoretical status.

The first psychoanalytic use of the term by Freud is probably his reference to "specific action," that is, the behavior that results in the satisfaction of a need (Manuscript E, 1894, and "Project for a Scientific Psychology," 1895, in 1950a). This idea,...