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= D.: Abreagieren.–Es.: abreacción.–Fr.: abréaction.–I.: abreazione.–P.: ab-reação.
Emotional discharge whereby the subject liberates himself from the * attached to the memory of a traumatic event in such a way that this affect is not able to become (or to remain) pathogenic. Abreaction may be provoked in the course of psychotherapy, especially under hypnosis, and produce a cathartic* effect. It may also come about spontaneously, either a short or a long interval after the original *.
The notion of abreaction can only be understood by reference to Freud's theory of the genesis of the hysterical symptom, as set out in his paper ‘On the Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena’ (1893) (1a, α). The persistence of the affect attached to a memory depends on several factors, of which the most important is related to the way in which the subject has reacted to a particular event. Such a reaction may be composed of voluntary or involuntary responses, and may range in nature from tears to acts of revenge. Where this reaction is of sufficient intensity a large part of the affect associated with the event disappears; it is when the reaction is * (unterdrückt) that the affect remains bound* to the memory.
Abreaction is thus the normal way for the subject to react to an event and to ensure that it does not keep too great a *. For the reaction to be cathartic, however, it has to be ‘adequate’.
Abreaction may be spontaneous; in other words, it may come about fairly shortly after the event and prevent the memory from being so burdened with a great quota of affect that it becomes pathogenic. Alternatively, it may be secondary, precipitated by a cathartic psychotherapy which enables the patient to recall the traumatic event, to put it into words and so deliver himself from the weight of affect which has been the cause of his pathological condition. As early as 1895, in fact, Freud noted that ‘language serves as a substitute for action; by its help, an affect can be “abreact