Transferences: meaning, definitions and examples

Used in psychology to describe the redirection of feelings and desires, especially those unconsciously retained from childhood, toward a new object.

• The patient's transferences onto the therapist were a significant part of the therapeutic process.
• Transferences can often reveal underlying conflicts from past relationships.

In psychological terms, projection involves attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to others. It often carries a negative connotation. In more general use, it can mean the presentation or display of something, such as an image or data.

• She accused him of being selfish, but it was actually her own selfish desires that were being projected.
• The projector's light beam ensured the clear projection of the presentation on the screen.

In psychology, displacement refers to the redirection of an emotion or impulse from its original object to a safer or more acceptable substitute. It can also be used in physical contexts to describe the movement of something from its usual place.

• He took out his frustration about work by yelling at his kids, which is a classic case of displacement.
• The displacement of the gear is causing the machine to malfunction.

Sublimation is a defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior. In scientific contexts, it describes the process of turning from a solid directly into a gas without passing through a liquid state.

• He channeled his aggressive impulses into sports as a form of sublimation.
• Dry ice undergoes sublimation at room temperature.

Used mostly in psychology or psychotherapy to describe the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another.

• The therapist observed the patient's transferences of feelings from their past relationships

Used in both linguistics and mathematics. In linguistics, it refers to the process of creating a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix. In mathematics, it refers to the process of calculating a derivative.

• The derivation of the word 'happiness' from 'happy' involves adding the suffix '-ness'

Primarily used in linguistics to refer to the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case.

• The inflection of the verb 'to be' varies greatly across different tenses and voices

Used in linguistics to describe the variation of the form of verbs in various tenses, moods, aspects, or voices.

• Learning the conjugation of irregular verbs is always a challenge for language learners