# What's the term for this psychological phenomenon?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 9, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243 "2008-10-09T22:36:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243/1 "2008-10-09T22:36:31Z")

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The phenomenon of externalizing one’s emotions onto other people and objects, attributing the emotions as properties of the external object; being completely lacking in self-introspection. For example, the psycho rapist who when he sees a woman and is aroused thinks that she’s a provokative slut who’s daring him to rape her. “Projection” isn’t the proper term because if I understand it correctly that’s believing someone else possesses one’s own motives and emotions.

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**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243/2 "2008-10-09T22:55:58Z")

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[Transference?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference)

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**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243/3 "2008-10-09T23:22:52Z")

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[Dissocial personality disorder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissocial_personality_disorder) seems to fit, especially this line;

> [@](#):
>
> Marked proneness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.

But, it seems to be a partial fit in a lot of disorders. I’ve been following a daisy chain of Wiki links to get this close to the OP. There’s probably a better fit out there.

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**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-term-for-this-psychological-phenomenon/467243/4 "2008-10-10T05:19:31Z")

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Sorry, missed the part where you said it wasnt projection