What is Displacement as a Defence?

Ilsted (Woman Reading), Painting by Peter Vilhelm, 1907

Displacement is a defence mechanism where a patient redirects feelings or impulses from a threatening or inaccessible object toward a safer or more acceptable alternative. For example, a patient who feels anger toward a supervisor may redirect this emotion onto a family member at home. In this way, the original source of conflict stays partially disguised, while the emotional tension itself finds an outlet. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, displacement is not only understood as misdirected anger or a desire, but as an unconscious process that helps a patient manage feelings that would be overwhelming otherwise.

George Vaillant, in his hierarchy of defences, classified displacement as a neurotic defence. This means it tends to appear in patients who are able to use more adaptive coping strategies than primitive defences like denial or projection, but who are not yet using the more mature defences such as humour or sublimation. According to Vaillant, displacement allows for a partial compromise: the affect is expressed, but not in its original form or toward its original target. As a result, the patient gains some relief without fully confronting the deeper or more threatening, source of conflict.

For patients, displacement can show up in everyday situations such as a person who has unresolved anger toward a parent becoming overly critical of authority figures, teachers, friends or peers. In relationships, a patient may displace fear of abandonment onto minor disagreements, with heightened and intense reactions that seem out of proportion to the present situation. These examples show how displacement can create patterns of interpersonal difficulties, where the patient is unaware that their reactions are based on earlier conflicts.

Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, Painting by Winslow Homer, 1868

Working with displacement in psychotherapy involves helping the patient become aware of how and why their feelings are being redirected. This process is rarely straightforward, as the unconscious function of displacement is to avoid the true source of the emotion. In this, the therapist can assist the patient in becoming aware of these original feelings through carefully observing patterns, linking current behaviours to earlier experiences, and creating insights, which can lead to healthier and more direct expression, while reducing the risk of repeated cycles of misdirected emotions.

While displacement is often maladaptive, it can also be seen as a transitional defence. As Vaillant suggested, it can protect the patient from more primitive forms of avoidance, and can offer a first step toward mature strategies. In this sense, recognising displacement is not about pathologising the patient, but about understanding how the psyche protects itself. With insight and therapeutic support, displacement can turn into more constructive ways of managing conflict which allows patients to engage with their emotions more openly and form healthier relationships.