**🔼 Up:** [[Defence Mechanisms]] **\#️⃣ Tags:** #Psychology #DefenceMechanism > **🌱 Planted:** Fri 7 February 2025 --- ***Displacement is the act of redirecting emotions to a safer target***. Displacement is a [[Defence Mechanisms|Psychological Defence Mechanism]] where emotions, thoughts or impulses that should be directed to a causal source are instead redirected to a safer or more appropriate place (often another person). This usually happens unconsciously as it allows someone to express their feelings without needing to directly confront the cause which could be too scary, overwhelming or dangerous. To know what this might look like in practice, we can take the example of a child in a family system who feels anger at their parents for their unmet [[Developmental Needs|emotional needs]] or mistreatment. Instead of being able to express that anger naturally, they may [[Publish/Elements/Dictionary/Repression|Repress]] it because it's not unsafe to, and they depend on their parents for security and safety. That repressed energy needs to go someone, so instead of directing it toward their parents (the source), they might start to displace it onto other members of the family, like their siblings. # See Also - Displacement often stems from [[Publish/Elements/Dictionary/Repression|Repressed]] emotions that find their expression in safer ways. - It's kind of like [[Projection|Projection]], except the focus is on redirection rather than attribution.