Concepts
Health psychology/Defence mechanisms · Neurotic
Displacement
What it means
Transferring feelings from their true, threatening target onto a safer substitute target.
Worked example
Berated by his boss, a man goes home and shouts at his children or the dog.
In the exam
After being humiliated by his manager, a man returns home and snaps angrily at his wife and kicks the door — though they did nothing wrong.
What settles it
Displacement redirects the AFFECT onto a safer object. Projection attributes one’s own feeling to ANOTHER PERSON rather than redirecting it.
Classically confused with
Projection
Source: AMBOSS