11 - Enactment

Enactment is a term used by psychologists and theorists that refers to an experiential or relational dynamic that is created, unwittingly, by unconscious forces. Perhaps the most significant hypothesis put forth by Freud is that a person is doomed to repeat what he or she does not remember. What Freud meant by this statement is that experience which is not represented by the mind nor emotionally worked through is sequestered in the unconscious. Once housed in the unconscious, the circumstances of an experience (e.g., the roles played by different persons involved, the specific elements of the interaction, the feeling states produced, and so on) are primed to be replayed or repeated, often years later, with remarkable similarity to the original event. The original event is enacted or, perhaps more accurately, re-enacted.