DISPLACEMENT: Displacement is one of the methods by which the repressed returns in hidden ways. For example, in dreams the affect (emotions) associated with threatening impulses are often transferred elsewhere (displaced), so that, for example, apparently trivial elements in the manifest dream seem to cause extraordinary distress while "what was the essence of the dream-thoughts finds only passing and indistinct representation in the dream" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.21). For Freud, "Displacement is the principle means used in the dream-distortion to which the dream-thoughts must submit under the influence of the censorship" ("New Introductory Lectures" 22.21). The same sort of displacement can occur in symptom-formation. The other method whereby the repressed hides itself is condensation.

 

 

 

 

 

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