Projection with a twist?

by **asphyx** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:43 am

It is well-known that it is common for HPDs to deny what they are feeling and project these feelings onto others as a sort of psychological defense mechanism.

But is it possible/common for HPDs to project what they are feeling toward one person onto someone else? For example, a HPD says she misses Person A but she actually misses Person B, and does not really care for Person A.

That sounds like displacement. From the dictionary:
Psychoanalysis. the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_(psychology)

That's when you cannot deny that you have a certain emotion, but you don't want to admit that the target of the emotion is X, so you claim that it is Y instead, allowing you to admit to having an emotion but without having to admit the target of it.

by **asphyx** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:44 pm

^ hmm good to know there's a term for it

... so I googled HPD + displacement on google and found this:

Displacement occurs when a patient shifts an affect from one idea to another. For example, a man with HPD may feel angry at work because the boss did not consider him to be the center of attention. The patient may displace his anger onto his wife rather than become angry at his boss.

Seems that there is a relation. :wink:

That's when you cannot deny that you have a certain emotion, but you don't want to admit that the target of the emotion is X, so you claim that it is Y instead, allowing you to admit to having an emotion but without having to admit the target of it.

That's kinda what I was looking for... but do they do this 'displacement' when they don't need to avoid admitting the target, but choose to anyway? Like what I said in my original message; for example, a HPD says she misses Person A (when she could've just said nothing) but she actually misses Person B, and does not really care for Person A.

by **Peptron** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:59 pm

asphyx wrote:
That's when you cannot deny that you have a certain emotion, but you don't want to admit that the target of the emotion is X, so you claim that it is Y instead, allowing you to admit to having an emotion but without having to admit the target of it.

That's kinda what I was looking for... but do they do this 'displacement' when they don't need to avoid admitting the target, but choose to anyway? Like what I said in my original message; for example, a HPD says she misses Person A (when she could've just said nothing) but she actually misses Person B, and does not really care for Person A.

I cannot answer that because I guess it's case by case. The thing about displacement is just that sometimes an emotion just cannot be hidden (or you don't want to hide it), so your only hope to make it pass better is to claim that the source is something else than what it really is. Another thing is that it can be subconscious, where the person convinced himself that the source of what they are feeling is something else.

Projection with a twist?

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