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For [[Freud]], [[displacement]] (a [[primary process]]) means the [[transference]] of [[physical ]] intensities (1900a, p. 306) along an "associative path," so that strongly cathected [[ideas ]] have their charge displaced onto [[other]], less strongly cathected ones.

This [[process ]] is [[active ]] in the [[formation ]] of [[hysterical]] or [[obsessional]] [[symptom]]s, in the [[dream work]], in the production of [[joke]]s, and in the [[transference]].

Between 1887 and 1902 the [[concept ]] of displacement appeared several [[times ]] in [[Freud]]'s writings (in Drafts K and M in his correspondence with [[Wilhelm Fliess]], in the "[[Project ]] for a [[Scientific ]] [[Psychology]]" [1950c (1895)], and in [[The Interpretation of Dreams]] [1900a]).

It was introduced in connection with his [[clinical ]] [[work]], apropos of the [[analysis]] of [[neurotic]] [[symptom]]s and [[paranoia]].

In Draft M (1950a), [[Freud]] described the types of displacement that result in compromise-[[formations]].

<blockquote>"Displacement by association: hysteria. Displacement by ([[conceptual]]) similarity: obsessional [[neurosis ]] (characteristic of the [[place ]] at which the [[defence ]] occurs, and perhaps also of the [[time]]).; Causal displacement: paranoia."<ref>p. 252</ref></blockquote>

In addition, in his [[search ]] for a [[model ]] of [[psychic ]] functioning still informed by the scientific [[thinking ]] and medical research of the time, [[Freud]] noted:

<blockquote>"Hysterical [[repression ]] evidently takes place with the [[help ]] of [[symbol]]-formation, of displacements on to other neurones. We might [[think]], then, that the riddle resides only in the [[mechanism ]] of this displacement, and that there is [[nothing ]] to be explained [[about ]] repression itself" (1950c [1895], p. 352</blockquote>

Displacement, at work to a pathological degree in hysteria, "is thus probably a primary process, since it can easily be demonstrated in [[dreams]]" (Ibid., p. 353).

It was in fact Freud's analysis of the [[Dream Work|dream work ]] that led him to discover the importance of displacement.

a) <blockquote>"The consequence of the displacement is that the dream-[[content ]] no longer resembles the core of the dream-[[thoughts ]] and . . . the dream gives no more than a [[distortion ]] of the dream-[[wish ]] which [[exists ]] in the unconscious" (p. 308);</blockquote>

<blockquote>"traced . . . back to the censorship which is exercised by one [[psychical ]] [[agency ]] in the [[mind ]] over [[another]].... dream-displacement comes about through the influence of the same censorship" (p. 308); and </blockquote>

The [[notion ]] of [[displacement]] did not see much further [[development]].

In his various revisions to his theories on [[dream]]s, [[Freud]] focused more on the [[separation ]] of [[image]]s from the [[affect]]s that had been attached to [[them]], on the vicissitudes of these affects ([[displacement]], conservation, metamorphosis), and on the fate of [[images ]] (stripped of [[affect]]) in relation to the "sensory intensity of the image presented."<ref>1900a, p. 306, n. 1</ref>

But it was above all in the process of refining the analysis of [[The Transference|the transference ]] during [[treatment ]] and its different manifestations—lateral, indirect, and direct transference<ref>Freud, 1915a; Sandór Ferenczi, 1909/1994; Michel Neyraut, 1974</ref> — that the notion of [[displacement]] was expanded.

It was further explored, too, by such authors as [[Jacques Lacan]] (1957/2002; 1958/2002) and Guy Rosolato (1969) who took as their starting point the work of [[linguists ]] (Ullmann, 1952; Jakobson and Halle, 1956) on the [[relationship ]] between [[signifier]] and [[signified]], and on [[metonymy]] ([[displacement]] by [[contiguity]]) and [[metaphor]] ([[displacement]] by [[substitution]]).

Not infrequently, this link is made without an adequate [[distinction ]] [[being ]] drawn in [[temporal ]] [[terms ]] between [[substitution]] where there is an immediate [[exchange ]] based on the [[disavowal]] of one of the two poles involved (perceptual, [[hallucinatory]], or conceptual substitutions), and [[substitution]] where deferred [[action ]] comes into play.

The mechanism of [[displacement]] detaches the [affect]] or emotional charge of an [[unconscious]] [[idea ]] and ransfers it to a less intense idea which is linked to the first by a [[chain]] of [[association]]s.

For example, in [[dream]]s 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."<ref>"New Introductory Lectures" 22.21</ref>

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]]."<ref>"New Introductory Lectures" 22.21</ref>

* "[[A Project for a Scientific Psychology]]" * [[Signifier]]/[[signified]]

* [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1900a). The [[interpretation ]] of dreams. Part 1, SE, 4: 1-338; Part 2, SE, 5: 339-625.* ——. (1915a). Observations on transference [[love ]] (Further recommendations on the [[technique ]] of psychoanalysis III). SE, 12: 157-71.* ——. (1950a [1887-1902]), Extracts from the [[Fliess ]] papers. SE, 1: 173-280.

* ——. (1985c [1887-1904]). The [[complete ]] letters of [[Sigmund Freud ]] to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904( Jeffrey M. Masson, Ed. and Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard [[University ]] Press.* Jakobson, Roman, and Halle, Morris. (1956). Fundamentals of [[language ]] (4th ed.). The [[Hague]], New York: Mouton.* [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (2002). The agency of the [[letter ]] in the unconscious or [[reason ]] since Freud. InÉcrits: A selection ([[Bruce Fink]], Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1957)* ——. (2002). The [[signification ]] of the [[phallus]]. In [[Écrits]]: A selection (Bruce Fink, Trans.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1958

 [[Category:Sigmund FreudPsychoanalysis]]