I was watching an episode of Law and Order SVU, on USA, and I realized it correlated with our psychology class. The episdoe was about a family with tow boys and the parents were divorced. Only the youngest son would visit his dad. The oldest son would not visit his dad because his dad molested him when he was a child. When the youngest son visited his father the visitation was supervised because of the incidents with the older son. It was discovered that the youngest son had been molested as well, and everyone thought it was the father. However, it turned out the older brother was the one molesting the youngest son.
The older boy demonstrates displacement which is a defense mechanism we learned in Ch. 11. Displacement is when someone shifts repressed motives and emotions from an original object to a substitute object. The older boy shifted his emotions onto his younger brother. Seeing this episode helped me to understand displacement. Now that I have this example it will be easier for me to remember what displacement is.
1 comment:
This is a great example of displacement and it is sad that it takes place all the time in the real world. Displacement also goes with the physical abuse that goes from gradfather, to father, to son. Maybe one day we will find something that can help stop this displacement that is negative and running down generation to generation.
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