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Adversaries of psychoanalysis sometimes state that psychoanalysis, in investigating a psychological field, cannot do anything but name the instincts which are supposed to be at the basis of the field in question. That is certainly not true. No analyst was ever of the opinion that the significance of a given phenomenon, for example as 'oral' or 'anal', suffices to explain the phenomenon; and psychoanalysis does not study instincts only, but the dynamic interrelations between instincts and the outer world, or between instincts and counterforces from the outer world.
Nevertheless the question, what instincts (erogenous zones, or partial instincts) form the basis of a given phenomenon, actually is a good starting point for a psychoanalytic investigation. Sometimes the 'counterforces' and the ways in which they work can be better directly approached with the help of an understanding of the nature of the instincts against which they are directed.
Concerning acting, there is no doubt about the nature of the underlying basic partial instinct: it is exhibitionism. Therefore, let us start with a few remarks about exhibitionism.
Exhibitionism is a sexual partial instinct. It is normally present in all children, and it forms a characteristic part of sexual forepleasure. Its aim is to present the body, or especially the excited erogenous zones and their functions, to onlookers.1 With the establishment of infantile genital primacy, the wish to show the genitals is certainly in the foreground in the exhibitionism of children of both sexes. Later the differences in the development of the castration complex in the two