PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY GLOSSARY
The glossary/dictionary that you can find in this section of our site gathers all the technical terms that are currently used in psychology and psychotherapy. Each term presents a brief and clear description.
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Unconscious: mental processes which have an influence over behaviour, but which cannot be accessed by the Conscious mind. According to psychoanalytical theory, the Unconscious is organised in relation to the three basic components of the personality, the Id (containing instinctual drives), the Ego (in which the quality and dynamics of relations with others are regulated) and the Super-ego (moral norms and limitations on behaviour). See psychoanalysis.
Undoing: a defence mechanism by means of which a subject is convinced he/she can annul an action or thought believed to be unacceptable by means of a sort of ritual, gesture, thought or action which will overturn what has been done. This process can be found underlying superstition. It is present in a pathological form in obsessive-compulsive patients and in very young children in a non-pathological form.
