Concepts
Health psychology/Defence mechanisms · Neurotic
Undoing
What it means
Attempting to symbolically reverse or negate an unacceptable thought or act with an opposing action.
Worked example
Compulsive hand-washing after intrusive thoughts; buying a lavish gift after an affair.
In the exam
After an intrusive aggressive thought about his child, a father performs an elaborate ritual of checking and apologising to "cancel it out".
What settles it
Undoing tries to magically reverse the act/thought after the fact. Reaction formation pre-emptively converts the impulse into its opposite.
Classically confused with
Reaction formation
Source: AMBOSS